Missing memory
by hellektrikorton
Summary: Emily wakes up one day, missing a year of her life. Everything is completely different… The biggest difference is probably that she is engaged to her best friend… And she doesn't remember it! CM Punk/OC; Kaitlyn; AJ; Dean; Seth; Lita…
1. The wake up call

Missing memory

Summary: Emily wakes up one day, missing a year of her life. Everything is completely different… The biggest difference is probably that she is engaged to her best friend… And she doesn't remember it! CM Punk/OC; Kaitlyn; AJ; Dean; Seth; Lita…

**Chapter 1**

**The wakeup call**

Emily opened her eyes and rolled on her back, placing herself in the middle of her big bed. She stretched as she yawned. The sun had been up for a few hours and was shining through the shutters of her room that were only partially closed.

She looked at the time on her alarm clock and smile, oh how much she loved weekends!

She didn't know a better sensation than to wake up by herself on a Sunday morning at ten thirty, feeling rested and full of energy. The best was, she could stay in bed until noon if she wanted to. Though she had told she would go to Mindy's today…

Not really wanting to, she pushed the covers off of her and got up, stretching again. She picked up her phone to check if she hadn't received a message from her boyfriend, Joshua. But the screen showed empty. Fine, she would call him later…

As she was walking to her apartment's kitchen, she passed in front of the bathroom's mirror and she frowned. She didn't remember putting those pajamas on the day before. She had, as she always did, put on one of Joshua's favorite hockey shirt because she loved that the fabric had kept his smell, which felt like he was there to sleep with her even when he was not.

She came closer to the mirror and looked at it attentively, she could have sworn her hair was shorter, not a lot shorter but enough for her to notice it wasn't the same. She also noticed the red nail polish on her hands and feet, though they were respectively pink and purple the night before.

She shook her head, she must have been she tired the previous night and she probably had acted like a zombie before she went to sleep; it felt like she was waking up from a coma.

She was about to continue her way to the kitchen when she noticed a pile of clothes on the chair next to the sink. Though they might have been hers, since it was her specialty to leave scattered clothes everywhere in her apartment, she knew she hadn't left anything here.

She came closer to inspect them. It only took her a second to know it was the ring gear of her longtime friend, CM Punk, which was surprising since she hadn't seen him in months.

Things were definitely weird today!

When she came into the kitchen, she saw him. He was making some sort of green smoothie, his T-shirt off and tied around his waist and his earplugs in his ears. He was probably coming back from his daily jog.

She watched him for a moment before he realized she was there. It wasn't the first time he crashed at her place. Every time he was in Chicago and wished for some space away from his adorable yet very nosy sisters, he came to her. He could have had, with all the money that he was earning, bought a home but he was too afraid of losing contact with the people he loved and it was his way of staying close. Usually though, he did not just show up, he used to call her a few days in advance…

When he finally raised his head from the mixer and saw she was there, he offered her his most handsome smile:

"Hello, Sleeping Beauty! I didn't wake you up last night, Kaitlyn told me you had a rough day!"

"Kaitlyn?"

He just nodded while sipping his disgusting-looking drink. She shook her head, deciding to tackle the problems one by one.

"Why is your stuff in my bathroom?" she asked, the right hand on her hip.

"Oh yeah, sorry… I know you don't like it when I leave them around but they don't go in the dryer and it was raining last night so I thought they could dry on the chair…" he put his glass on the counter and went into the bathroom "I'm gonna put them in their place right now!"

She shrugged, as if she shivered, something was wrong. She looked around herself, things were the same but different at the same time and she couldn't really say why she was feeling like that.

Suddenly, on the cabinet, next to the phone, she saw a framed picture of Punk and her, in Paris, right in front the Arc de Triomphe.

"Where does that come from? Did you photoshop it?" she asked as she waved the frame.

He came back into the kitchen and looked at what she was holding.

"No, it's the original picture! But I agree with you, it is so beautiful, it looks like someone airbrushed it!"

He had put on a shirt and was now taking his jacket and his keys.

"I've never been to Paris!" said Emily.

"Yes you did, we were there last month for the Wrestlemania Revenge Tour! Are you going nuts?" he joked.

He approached her with a smile on his face.

"I promised Renner and Eve that I would go see them today but I'll be back soon, I promise!"

He then put his hands on her waist and brought her closer and his lips were on hers. Too shocked to react, she didn't push him off. The kiss only lasted a second before he let her go and rushed out the apartment.

She stayed like this for a minute. Did Punk just kiss her? Why would he do that? Did he drink expired milk or something?

And then, she had like an illumination. He must have been playing a prank on her. The clothes, the picture, the conversation about a stranger, the kiss… Punk was famous for his pranks, not always of good taste by the way. Most of the time, it even drove his girlfriend, Amy, crazy because she was his favorite target.

Now, why was he doing _this_ to her? She had no clue.

She decided to call Josh to talk about it and even ask if he knew about it. She picked up the kitchen phone and went through the contact list. There were a lot of names she didn't know and there wasn't the one of her boyfriend… Wow, Punk really pushed it far but that wouldn't stop her, she knew the number by heart.

"Hello?" asked a sleepy voice.

"Hi, I'm not waking you up, am I?"

"Emily?" the voice suddenly seemed alert.

"You will never guess the rotten prank Punk is trying to pull on me!" she started, smiling.

"Wow, I'm surprised that you're calling me!" interrupted Josh "I thought you didn't want to speak to me again!"

"What are you talking about? We spoke last night!"

"No, we haven't spoken in a year, not since the breakup" he insisted.

"What? What breakup? What are you talking about?" she asked, shocked.

"I said that you wouldn't ever speak to me ever again, but I'm glad you changed your mind!"

Emily sat down on the closest stool.

"Oh okay, you're in on the prank too, I see!" she sighed of relief.

"What?"

"Punk called you and asked you to pretend we were not together anymore, right?"

"What are you talking about, Emily?" asked the hockey player who had no clue what she was on about.

"That's enough, I caught you, you can stop pretending now!" she smiled, proud of herself for not falling for that stupid prank.

"Listen Emily, I'm not sure I understand anything right now, but you're apparently still with CM Punk so I think it'll be best if I hang up… I was glad you called and I wish you have a happy life!"

She heard the tone. He had hung up. He must have panicked after she found out he was a prankster as well and he was probably trying to reach Punk now to tell him how he failed at his mission.

The Second City Savior had become a master at pranking if he went as far as including Josh in it. She wondered if Mindy was in as well and decided to call her, that way she could also postpone their meeting in the afternoon to next week. Today she wanted to chill in her pajamas in her apartment, and Punk was there. She didn't have the opportunity to spend some time alone with him in a while and she missed that. With him, she could be herself, no need for fashionable clothes and make up.

"Emily?" her friend picked up the phone after the second tone.

"Hi, I wanted to see if we could reschedule to next week instead of this afternoon?"

"This afternoon? Emily, what are you talking about?"

"We said we would meet at 4, right?" Emily was starting to get annoyed that everyone seemed to pretend she wasn't speaking English or something.

"Emily, we haven't spoken in a year!" said Mindy.

"You too?! OMG, he is really committed!" Emily sigh-smiled.

"What? Who is?"

"CM Punk! Okay, I give in, it was really fun, shit and giggles but can we stop it now?"

"I don't know what you're talking about but we didn't plan to meet this afternoon, you haven't spoken to me since a year and a half, Emily!" Mindy's voice hesitated between crying and screaming.

"Okay, let's say I play your games. Why aren't we speaking anymore?"

"You… You were mad about Josh and I and…" the best friend voice cracked.

"Josh and you? What do you mean 'Josh and you'?" asked Emily, who didn't find that joke funny anymore.

"We were together.. We… I mean, he was with me while you guys were together… Don't tell me you don't remember!" Mindy was crying now.

Emily didn't know how to react. She _knew_ all of this was a joke but… she hated it… It wasn't funny, why had he invented an affair between Mindy and Joshua? If it was to hurt her, he had succeeded.

"I… have to go Mindy!" she said absentmindedly before hanging up.

She needed to talk to Punk and stop that _thing_, those games… She was hurt, it _wasn't_ funny!

She just wanted to go find Josh and spend the afternoon in his arms…

She decided to shower and dress up. Hell to the lazy day, Punk and his stupid prank had ruined it. After a long shower, she put on clothes and spent quite some time curling her hair. It might have been stupid to do that now but she knew she needed to be calm in order to not kill Punk, and taking care of her hair had always had that calming effect on her.

Her phone rang on the night stand, she went into the bedroom and looked at the screen. There was a picture of a pretty blonde woman with black strands and the name 'Kaitlyn'. Wasn't it the name Punk had used earlier? She hesitated but decided to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey… How are you Sweety?" asked a voice with a southerner accent, probably coming from Texas.

"hum… sorry, who is this?"

"You don't recognize me and my beautiful 12-year-old-boy voice? That makes me sad!" she joked "it's me, Kaitlyn!" she said, imitating the Mario Bros games.

"Kaitlyn? Kaitlyn who?" Emily was searching her memory.

"Kaitlyn, your best friend Kaitlyn! You know the two-toned diva of the WWE! Hey, you don't seem okay…" the young woman seemed worried.

"I… I don't know who you are, I'm sorry!"

Emily wondered if it hadn't been a wrong number… But it was impossible; her phone had IDed the caller, who must have been in her contact list.

"Okay, I'm starting to really worry now! I know what just happened to you was horrible but Honey, you can't… Is Punk there?" Kaitlyn's worry seemed really genuine.

"No, but it's about time he comes back!"

At that instant, she heard the keys in the lock of the front door.

"That must be him… I'll call you back!" Emily said without really thinking.

The front door opened on a smiling Philip Brooks:

"Wow you didn't spend the day in your PJs… Is that a miracle?" he joked.

"I thought I was spending the afternoon with Mindy…"

"Mindy?! I didn't know you guys were speaking to each other again…"

"Oh stop it, please! I called her this morning and she told me about your little prank but this isn't funny, Punk. Sorry to ruin your fun but you went too far this time!" she sighed.

Punk closed the door and stared at her.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Do you really want to play that game? Fine, if you want to play stupid, that's fine. I called Josh and he told me that you and I were together, that he and I had broken up a year and a half ago…"

"Wait, you called Josh?" Punk couldn't believe it.

"And then Mindy told me that we're not speaking because Josh was having an affair with her… That's my breaking point, that's where it's not funny anymore!" she was starting to get angry that he hadn't confessed already.

On his side, the straight-edge superstar was looking at her as if she had gone crazy. Everything she was saying made absolutely no sense.

"I don't understand what you are trying to say!" he said, though he had an idea.

"I mean that the idea of pranking me was fine, getting Josh and Mindy on it was smart but… Can we stop it now?"

"I'm not pranking anybody and I would certainly have not included those two if I had, not after what they have done to you!" he was trying to defend himself.

"What?"

"I don't even understand why you called them!"

"Mindy is my best friend and Josh is my boyfriend!"

Punk took a step back as if she had just insulted him and thrown something in his face.

"Mindy and you aren't speaking since you know about Josh cheating on you with her… And you broke up with that motherf*cker for the same reason and it was almost two years ago!" he said calmly, with his professor voice.

Emily shook her head. She didn't understand why he pushed it so far, why he wasn't admitting the whole thing now. She would forgive him and maybe laugh with him because it was well executed, even the tiniest details…

"I don't understand why you're doing that to yourself? You've been through so much shit with those two! Why don't you leave this in the past?" Punk seemed as lost as she was.

"What past?"

He came closer and took her face in his hands:

"Emily, what is going on?"

"You tell me! I don't understand anything!" this time the tears were coming.

He pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and leaned towards her as if to kiss her again:

"What are you doing?!" she screamed.

"I was trying to kiss you!"

She pushed him off and took a few steps back, creating a certain distance between them.

"I know I look like I need comfort but not that kind and not from you, Punk, we've been friends for years and there has never been anything romantic between us so don't make things hard!"

"What?! Emily, we're engaged!"

**Hi everybody, it's been a while since I have written anything on this website. Anyway, I have found that story that I have been writing in French two or three years ago already and I know most of the people I'm gonna be talking about are gone from WWE but I felt this was a nice enough story to be put into your hands, dear readers.**

**I hope you enjoyed that first chapter. I know it can be a bit angsty at times but trust me already, this is going to end well…**

**Anyway, leave a review if you want, subscribe if you please and… you know the game!**


	2. The dirty prank

**Chapter 2 **

**The dirty prank**

Emily Crawley had always been a gullible person, she tended to trust too much into people, no matter how much they had already lied to her. She had been in so many bad situations because of that habit, but she had come to look at it as some sort of curse; she was too trusty, and that's all there was to it. And no matter how many times she had fallen for it, she would definitely do it again.

But this time, when CM Punk revealed what she would definitely call a "pipe bomb" , she didn't believe any of it.

She took a step back and shook her head; she was so lost, she had no idea if she wanted to laugh or cry. So she did a little bit of both…

"Engaged?! You and I?" she kept shaking her head.

"We've been engaged for 3 months… I asked you to marry me when we were in Vegas and you said it was the least romantic thing you had ever seen but you said yes anyway!" he smiled as he remembered the moment in his head.

"Okay… No… If the rest was credible, I could never believe in this!"

"Why do you say that?" he said, hurt evident in his voice.

"Because I _know_ you! I've known you for years and this is not like you at all! I don't know, it's like you promised to yourself to never get stuck in anything… I mean, even when you were with Maria, you've let things go to shit because you didn't want to settle down! And everybody is wondering when Amy is going to have enough, stop waiting for you to propose and leave you… So NO, I don't believe it for a second!"

Punk looked at her and came closer once again, he pulled her into him and wrapped her in a big hug:

"I don't know what's gone into you but… what you say is true, I wasn't ready to settle down, I had never even thought of it but… things have changed… You've made things change… And I don't know, like I did for our relationship when I realized I was in love with you, I had to reevaluate things and I did the same for my opinions on marriage I guess…"

He was petting her hair and was talking on his most calming tone.

"I've understand that you think all of this is a joke but you know how much I care about you. I would never do something so cruel, and I would never make you cry or hurt, not if I can avoid it!"

Emily stopped everything. She stopped crying, fidgeting, breathing… Punk would never hurt her like that, NEVER.

To be fair, he would never hurt anyone that he cares about. He is an amazing friend and once someone has gained his trust, he would do anything in his power to make sure that person is happy. And Emily knew that she was among these people, she even must have been close to the top of the list…

But that meant that he wasn't lying, he was telling the truth and everything that she had been told since the beginning of that day had been true as well…

She had broken up with Josh because he had cheated on her… Josh, the man she had fallen heels over head for the second he had walked to her in that tiny night club, only frequented by big scary dudes, that she had been forced into by her friend Natalie, Punk's ex-girlfriend who had been the one to introduce Punk and Emily.

Not only had he cheated on her but with her _best _friend, Mindy… It was so cliché but it still hurt so badly. And Mindy was far from innocent in this story. But the worst must have been that she couldn't remember a year and a half of her life. She had no memories, no famous flashbacks that people suffering from memory loss in movies have, nothing… She didn't even feel like she was missing something like people after a concussion or a night of heavy drinking. It just felt as if she had gone into bed last night and woken up after a year.

"I don't remember… I'm sorry, I don't remember!" she cried against his shoulder.

"That's okay, that's okay…" he hugged her tighter "We are gonna start by what you actually remember, okay? What is your last memory?"

"I… I had just been calling Josh to tell him I was going to spend the afternoon with Mindy because I hadn't had seen her in a while and… And I fell asleep before waking up this morning with an entire year missing…"

"Do… Do you remember us, just even a little bit?" he asked, not hiding very well the hope in in voice.

"No, not together…"

She looked up at the expression on his face, he looked hurt by her words but she wouldn't lie, not about something so important.

He released her and took both of their jackets.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you to a doctor!" he said, giving her the piece of clothing.

She wanted to say that she didn't need one and she certainly didn't want to see one but, she had to be honest and she knew it _was_ necessary. She didn't object then and put her jacket on, following him outside the apartment.

"What happened between Lita and you?" she asked, her voice a murmur, as if she didn't want him to hear.

But he did and he stopped right in his tracks and turned to her.

"I broke up with her…" he said, visibly torturing himself whether to say more or not "… for you! It didn't end very well… I think she's still mad at me!"

Emily remained like stuck behind him, her mouth hanging open… According to her, Punk and Amy had been an evidence: they liked the same things, the same people, they were both the same and different at the same time… The perfect match! She had been jealous of them in the past before she had met Josh… How ironic!

"We should go!" he said, changing the subject.

She nodded. In an unaware movement, he took her hand in his. She was about to withdraw it but she decided now was not the time to have a discussion about that kind of things. She followed him until they reached his car, she went in and pretended to fall asleep only a few minutes after he had started the engine. She wanted to avoid as much as possible any awkward discussion. After he few minutes pretending though, she really fell asleep. The day had been so emotionally tiring.

"Hey, wake up! We're here!" Punk shook her arm slightly.

Her eyes fluttered open as she regained consciousness. Despite herself, she had hoped that this had all been a dream and that she would wake up in her apartment next to Josh… She sighed as she realized this day had been the reality.

"We're in Stamford?" she stutter, still half asleep.

"No… We're in New York… WWE's doctor lives here!" he got out of the car and went to open her door.

"I think it's best if it's a doctor from WWE… If there's anything, my insurance will cover it!"

"Why not mine?" she frowned.

"You don't have it anymore… You quit your job since… since working with Mindy and all that… that was…"

"I don't have a job?! In a year, I got engaged and I got unemployed? Does that mean I spend my time waiting for you to come home from Raw and the house shows?!" she was getting mad.

"Actually… You're coming with me most of the time! You're the reason why I got to have the big room in the bus and Kofi has to use the bunk beds!" he tried to joke to humor her.

She only nodded, she didn't want to express all her frustration on him.

"Sorry to take it all on you, I know it's not your fault! Shall we go?"

She got out of the car and went to the big house he had shown her, she didn't even wait for him before she knocked on the door.

"Ah, Punk, I was waiting for you… hello, you must be Emily; I'm Doctor Robinson. Punk told me what's happening to you, we're going to do a little check up!"

Emily turned to her "fiancé", raising a questioning eyebrow:

"I called him while you were sleeping in the car!"

He saw the young woman starting to frown:

"I know you don't like when I use my phone while driving but you were asleep and we couldn't just show up unannounced!" he half-apologized.

She smiled because as he often did, he had guessed what she had been thinking without her saying it out loud. Some things hadn't changed, and that reassured her.

"Are you ready?" asked the doctor showing her the way to his home office.

After what seemed like a long _long_ time, the doctor called Punk back in after he had sent him in the hallway for the consultation as he had gotten on Emily's nerve by asking _a lot_ of questions. She had remained silent through it and was just waiting for a diagnostic.

"So?" asked CM Punk.

"I can't really tell you… There hadn't been anything colliding with the head, I don't see any concussion or anything alarming. If you hadn't told me about the memory loss, I would tell you this young woman is perfectly fine."

"So what? How do you explain the 'memory loss' in her case?" Punk was lost between worry and anger.

"The only explanation I've is that she had an important emotional shock. I am no psychoanalyst so I can't make a formal diagnostic but I think she went through something so big, her subconscious brought her back to a time when she felt happy, serene and safe." The doctor suggested.

Throughout the entire speech, Emily hadn't drawn a breath. On one hand, she wanted to know what was wrong with her but on the other, she just wanted to run away and forget all about it.

Now, she was looking at Punk and she noticed the hurt expression on his face.

"Is there anything we can do to make her remember?" he asked, nervous.

"I don't think so, sorry." Said the doctor with empathy "Only time will tell… But, I don't want you lose hope but… There's a change she will never recover her memories…"

Emily and Punk had the same reaction, the one of pure shock. Not for the same reasons of course: Punk was afraid she would never let him come close to her ever again, he had seen how she eyed him suspiciously now. On her side, she was afraid to have to live with this 'hole' in her life, to have to question people all the time just to know what had happened during that time…

"There's nothing I can do! There's no method…" the doctor said quietly before leaving the room to the two of them.

She kept watching him, staring at him even as if she was expecting him to find what was wrong with her. He was avoiding her gaze…

"What do we do now?" she asked.

He finally looked at her and they stayed there, like that, looking at each other for a few minutes. He tried to smile but his lips barely moved; he didn't have the strength to smile.

"We go home!" he finally answered.

He extended his hand to her and she took it. She was sad and she really needed Punk right now, she needed her friend… She didn't care if he saw something else in that gesture. For her, it was the sign that her best friend was with her in this horrid situation that felt like a punch in the face.

They found the doctor in the hallway, they apologized for disturbing his weekend and his home, they thanked him and went home.

In the car, Emily didn't pretend to be asleep this time. She had like a billion questions going through her mind and she wanted some answers _now._

"What has been going on… in the last year and a half? Tell me everything… From the beginning!" she demanded.

He almost sighed. That trip back home was going to be long…

"I can't tell you everything because I wasn't there most of the time… A year and a half ago, you called me, you had just learned about Josh and Mindy by picking her phone up by accident… You wanted to play tough and act like you didn't care but I know you way too much and I knew you weren't okay. I knew you weren't alone, there was Natalie with you and Colt was not that far, and you had your colleagues, Liz and Jane, but I came to Chicago anyway even if I had to go through one of Vince's worst tantrum because of you because I had to cancel a TV appearance…" he smiled at the memory.

"I've found out by picking up the phone? That… sucks!"

"You were expecting something else?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well… Out of the blue, I wake up engaged to the most popular wrestler on the planet so I thought that everything that happened must have been batshit-crazy but that… that's humdrum!"

She was astonished as well by her very cynical way of thinking. But it, at least, made him smile:

"What happened next?"

"You weren't really happy to see me… You wanted to play tough in front of people but inside your apartment, you were listening to Taylor Swift and Adele and eating some sorts of disgusting sugar free cookies… And you know me, the more I annoy people, the more I like that! So I moved in with you and I didn't leave you alone for a second for two days… Amy wasn't happy but I got what I wanted: you were so fed up with me, you broke down. You screamed for hours before crying for 24 hours straight… And that gave you clarity, you decided to quit your job because you didn't want to work for Mindy anymore. Oh and you also wanted to kill me, but as you can see, that part didn't follow through. I needed to go back to work, I asked you to come with me and since you had nothing better to do, you said yes!"

Emily was listening in silence, trying to remember those moments, have the flashbacks or something… But nothing at all.

"Kofi was happy, he thought that with you in the bus, it would be clean and tidy. I can't tell you how disappointed he was!" he joked.

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" she half-heartedly protested.

"The first time he tried your cooking, he thought you were trying to poison him!" the wrestler was laughing now.

"He had already come into my house, no? So he must have known I'm not the best but nobody ever died from my cooking!"

"He must have been there the days you ordered pizzas!"

The young woman laughed for the first time in this horrible day. She felt much lighter.

"You became quite popular in the locker room because you're the only one that can make me shut up!" "he said smiling.

"Really?"

"You get on well with everybody except maybe for Paul… Paul Heyman! You two spend your time bickering about anything and everything like brothers and sisters, but you once told me you liked him and I know that deep down, he likes you too. But the person you became the closest to must be Kaitlyn…"

"Really?" she repeated.

"Yeah, the best of friends… When you're with her, you look like two 15-year-old BFFs…"

Emily felt weirdly bad for being so impolite and rude with Kaitlyn earlier, and she had hung up on her too… That wasn't cool!

"You stayed with me for a few weeks… But then, we started to have troubles, Amy and I…"

"Because of me?" Emily was worried about her implication in their break up.

"I would like to say no but… She was really jealous. She insisted on coming with us on the bus and she wouldn't let you come near me. I didn't know it at the time. You just said you had to go back to Chicago and you left. But it didn't change anything in Amy's behavior, she was suffocating me and was driving me crazy… it was a torture to work with April because she was always behind us, watching…"

"Hum… April?"

"AJ! Oh no, of course, you don't know her either! She's a Diva and I was put in a storyline with her… Anyway, it's not very important right now… Amy was making me nuts and I decided to break up with her…"

"I'm sorry for my implication in this shit…" Emily apologized.

"It's not your fault! If it hadn't been for you then, it would have been another later… And, without all this, you and I wouldn't be together today…"

She looked at him wide-eyed. She hadn't gotten used to being his girlfriend yet. That's probably because there had never been anything romantic between the two of them. When she had met him, he was going out with Natalie from Bake and Destroy. She had been the one to introduce them because she thought Emily could be a good match for Punk's friend and tag team partner, Colt Cabana who also became one of her friends.

Their friendship was not conventional, he was the straight-edge punk kid that dreamed of main eventing Wrestlemania and she was a collected, serious young woman who had just graduated from college. They had seemed like complete opposite et yet, they had gotten on right away, they liked the same music, she knew one or two things about wrestling and they were both a little 'strange'. Throughout time, their friendship had gotten stronger…

Had she ever thought about him as boyfriend material? Sometimes, when she had been alone or when she had had her heart just broken… After all, he was the only male that always understood her and he was always there for her… And as soon as that thought had been in her brains, it had been coming out. She wasn't attracted to him and he had never showed any interest in her either…

"What do you mean?"

"Amy didn't like to be dumped… She said it was because I was in love with you that I did all that and that I hadn't made efforts for our relationship to work… But I wasn't thinking about you that way… Well it had happened sometimes because you're awesome, smart and funny… And incredibly good looking with that…"

Emily couldn't help to blush. She had never heard him spoke about her before.

"But… It had never occurred to me that we could… I mean, I didn't even think I was your type, you went for guys like Josh with his banker looks and not really for tattooed wrestlers like me. But what she said had me thinking… Why had I never thought about you as a potential girlfriend? Even though you seemed perfect? You and I, we are the same… I've never been so connected to someone like I was with you!"

"Not true, you and Natalie are like clones!" she interjected.

"Maybe Natalie, but I had gone out with her already and it didn't work out… So I came back to Chicago to think about all these feelings and such…"

"So what?"

"So the first thing I did coming to Chicago was knocking at your door. And when you opened the door, I kissed you without thinking first!" he said shamefully.

"You did _what_?" she screamed.

Her reaction made him smile:

"I kissed you and you… you gave me the hardest slap of my life! I swear I would never do that mistake again before a slap from you is ten times deadlier than a K.O punch from the Big Show!" he smiled "After I told you everything, you told me that Lita was playing with my head and that I don't actually feel anything for you. That's when I had the big revelation. Yes, I do have feelings for you. I want you in my life as my girlfriend. And you just laughed before you realized I wasn't kidding. And then you start to scream at me that I have no rights to do that to you, that you are not over Joshua yet and many other stuff that I have forgotten about, sorry… So to stop you from screaming, I kissed you again. You remained very calm this time and you asked me to leave to have some time for yourself to reflect on everything. You didn't answer your door or the phone for 3 days after that… I thought you would never talk to me again, and I think that must have been your intention but as I was persistent you finally opened the door and you looked at me very seriously saying "That's never going to happen!" and you let me in. You told me you wanted to remain friends and that I should push my 'feelings' aside because you didn't want to lose me!"

All that, that is so _her_. He couldn't have invented that. She knew it was exactly how she would have reacted, how she _had_ reacted, but as for the rest, she didn't remember.

"How are we together then?"

"I don't really know… I imagine that you have thought about it and talked about it with Kaitlyn because she was looking at me strangely at the time… Well, that didn't change much, she still does that… Anyway, you agreed to go on a date with me and you asked me to convince you to put our friendship on the line. Apparently I succeeded because at the end of the night, you kissed me. You asked me not to push things because you had to wrap up the idea of me being more than a friend.

That part either wasn't so hard to believe. It was exactly what she was feeling at the moment.

"Things moved faster when I met your mother. She was visiting you and saw me at your place and I introduced myself as your boyfriend even though he didn't have had that conversation yet. You wanted to kill me, especially because your mother almost had an heart attack when she saw all the tattoos on my arms. We spent time together and I must have convinced your mom I wasn't so bad because she gave her blessing. That convinced you and you agreed that we… went further in our relationship because kissing was nice but…"

Emily became red as a tomato as she realized where he was going. She was an adult, and she had had boyfriends before, that shouldn't have made her feel like that but it was Punk. It was so hard to imagine _that_ with him.

"We were really together and… I wanted the whole world to know about us but you didn't want to come back to the WWE with me, you were afraid that everyone would hate you or thinks of you as a home wrecker because everything had been a bit too fast…"

"Did people hate me?" she asked with worry.

It's true that she didn't remember most of these people and it felt as if she didn't know them at all but she really didn't want to be hated by anybody.

"Not at all… If they were mad at somebody, it was me because I've ended things badly with Lita and I had put you in a bad spot. But no, everybody welcomed you with open arms and we travelled with the WWE for months."

Emily had some difficulties to imagine herself living that kind of gypsy life, she had been one to always need security and a home, a place of hers, her own cocoon… She was a girl of habits, she avoided as much as she could everything she didn't know. CM Punk had often ridiculed her about it because he wasn't like that at all, he liked to try new things all the time.

"Everybody is crazy about you there and they all think that you are way too good for me… Mick Foley looked at me in the eyes and told me to propose to you before you realize that you can do much better… It's that conversation that made me think. Until now, I hadn't thought about marriage but then… Everything went fast, we weren't together for 6 months…"

"We got engaged after only 6 months?" asked Emily, surprised by so much spontaneity from herself.

"No" he laughed "But let me tell you what happened, it's pretty funny! I talked to people around me, because you know me, before I take big decision, I like to have the opinions of the people I care about. I asked my sisters, and the three of them agreed because they wanted me to marry someone before they had to go to a retirement home… And they adore you anyway…"

Emily smiled… According to her memories, she had only met one of Punk's sister, his best friend, Chez and they had gotten on well, which had comforted him he had made a good decision by befriending that girl. She didn't remember having met the other two and that made her a bit sad because Punk always talked nicely about them and now she knew they liked her…

"I've talked to Joey (Mercury), with Kofi and with Lars and Colt too…"

She had never really talked to Joey Mercury or with Lars, though he had accompanied Punk to some Rancid's gigs but she knew how much their opinion mattered to Punk.

Colt was another story… She had briefly gone out with him once or twice because Natalie Slater had tried to play matchmaker but there hadn't really been a spark and Colt's schedule was crazy, he was wrestling in many independent wrestling companies, it didn't help either.

They had decided to remain friends and had become close. He joked all the time about the fact that when she had let him go, she had lost the man of her dreams. Well to be truthful, she had jokes of her own.

She remembered one time when she had pretended to be his girlfriend while he was on a date. The girl had slapped him hard across the face and run away, Colt had promised he would get his revenge. She was still waiting for it, by the way… or maybe not, maybe he had already gotten his 'vengeance' and she couldn't remember it?

"They were all on the same page, I needed to put a ring on it!" Punk smiled.

She looked at her finger and saw no ring, he noticed the gesture:

"You don't have one… You said you wanted one only when you'd be a married woman! I didn't tell you this before but Colt told me that if I didn't propose to you, he would because he wouldn't be stupid and let you go twice!"

That made Emily grin. As she knew Colt, it was very probable he said that. He wasn't really into deep conversations about feelings and he was always making jokes to lighten the mood.

"So, influenced by everybody, I asked you to marry me in the middle of a conversation, without anything formal… You just looked at me and you said no, without anything formal either… thinking back about it, it was pretty funny!" he said.

She was watching him, he could be so weird sometimes. But it was probably what she liked most about him…

"So I asked the others why you rejected me. I really thought the entire Diva roster was about to kill me… It was everything but romantic and I had ruined one of the best moments in a woman's life!"

"Really? I thought I would get over it quickly, no?"

"Yeah, we talked about it and you told me it wasn't how I did but when… You didn't want to rush things… But you changed your mind after Nattie and TJ's weeding, they're both superstars… It had taken TJ 10 years to ask her to marry him and she told you she would have liked they had done it sooner because they had spent their entire relationship as if they were a married couple without being one and something changed in you, I saw it and I took the opportunity… Three months ago, we were in Vegas, in front of the Eiffel Tower replica, I knelt down and proposed again… And you laughed, saying that this wasn't much more romantic than the first one but you said 'Fine, I'll marry you' and you made me the happiest man on the planet".

Emily didn't really know how to react, she should have been emotional or something but she was just ill-at-ease… Thankfully, they were almost home. Punk had just gotten into her street. He parked and they got out of the car.

In front of her building, there was a blonde woman looking at her phone. When she saw them, she smiled and came into their direction:

"Punk, I've come as soon as I got your message!"

Emily looked at the young woman and suddenly, something 'clicked' in her head:

"Kaitlyn?" she asked, surprised.

**Hi, hello there! I know it was really long, or it felt like it at least while typing it. It was the longest of the story but I wanted the whole story of the year missing into one chapter only so we can move on with the plot.**

**Anyway, tell me what you thought of this chapter, if anything is not clear you can ask me, because please remember I'm French and I had this story written in French and I'm trying to translate it the best I can. **

**What do you think will happen next?**

**And I'm gonna stop talk-writing after I thanked everybody that took an interest in that story and I hope I continue to interest you. **

**Bye bye! **


	3. The misunderstanding

**Chapter 3**

**The misunderstanding**

« Kaitlyn ? You remember Kaitlyn ? You remember ! » Punk exploded with joy and made her spin around in his arms.

She was so surprised that, for a minute, she forgot everything and started laughing out loud while Punk was making her swirl. Kaitlyn was grinning hugely next to them, so much that she could put out of a job the actors from a toothpaste commercial.

Though as soon as he released her, her smile vanished.

"No… No, I'm sorry, I don't remember…"

"What? But you said 'Kailtyn'?" Punk's emotions were doing a 180.

"I… I recognize her from my phone earlier…" Emily confessed, ashamed she had making him feel happy to be let down like that just in a few seconds.

Punk took his distance from her and looked at her, he didn't know what to do anymore. He had to make huge efforts not to get mad at her. He understood it was a tough time for her and that she was more fragile than ever but at that moment, she was just pissing him off.

"I think it's best if I leave the two of you alone… Kaitlyn might be luckier than I am…" he shrugged, defeated.

He went back to the car and just went leaving Emily with her best friend that she didn't know about. She turned to the blonde woman and offered her an apologetic smile.

"Wait, what is going on?" asked the Diva "you were super weird on the phone this morning and then I get a text from Punk telling me to come immediately and now… I don't get what's going on here!"

Emily sighed, watching the direction the car had taken.

"We should go inside, because this is a long story…" Emily said, taking the keys out of her purse.

They went upstairs into the apartment and Emily noticed even more changes than she had in the morning: there was a picture of her and Punk at a hockey game on the fridge, sticky notes full of smileys to remind him of taking out the garbage or going to get the invitations to the wedding…

They had already settled a date? But he had just proposed to her…

"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" the blonde couldn't wait.

"I… I don't know who you are…" Emily answered "I mean, I know you are Kaitlyn, a Diva from WWE but it feels like I'm meeting you for the first time…"

"What?!"

Emily took the rest of the afternoon to explain everything… The young Diva remained silent, trying to understand that the young woman she considered to be her best friend had no idea of who she was.

"That's it, you know all of it!" Emily sighed, tired to have had to repeat all she had learned through the day.

"I… wow… That means we have to get to know each other all over again?"

"No, Punk thinks you should all act normally with me until everything falls back in to place in my head!"

"Okay… hum… I don't really know what to tell you then… Oh yeah! I've just learned that Randy and his wife just got a divorce… We should never get married in that company, never ends well. There has to be only you and Nattie that want to get hitched… Well, at least, it's not going to happen to me and neither to AJ… I mean I don't think that Dolph is in a hurry either so… Oh no, I forgot about Naomi! She just got engaged to Jimmy… I was so shocked when I heard about it, I had never seen them together so…"

Emily nodded, trying to follow all of it… As for Randy, she must have been talking about Randy Orton, she knew him because Punk had talked about him once or twice… Punk had talked about Nattie and her wedding in the car, and he had mentioned AJ as well… As for the others, she was completely lost.

"Anyway… I wanted to come last night but I had a photoshoot for the website… That was super long… The photograph had something wrong with his camera so he had to go home to get another one. When he came back, the guys from the lights were already gone because they were tired of waiting… So he called Stephanie McMahon, she made them come back immediately and she even came to the shoot, nothing like that can make me more uncomfortable. Thank god, the guys from the Shield were there too. They had to take picture for the magazine. It was a long night, trust me!"

Emily got up and walked around the room.

"I'm sorry, this is just _so_ weird… It's as if you were speaking another language!" she finally said, not hiding her sadness and her annoyance.

Kaitlyn came to her and hugged her. All of a sudden, Emily tensed. She wasn't a very touchy person. Only the people that she knew really well were allowed that kind of intimate gesture.

"I'm sorry" she said pushing Kiatlyn away "I don't know you and I just can't do it!"

She saw a shadow on the Diva's face, the same she had seen on Punk's a few hours before… She had offended her…

But to be honest, right know she didn't really care… She had to take out all the frustration that had built in her since she had woken up that morning. What she was going through was an excuse enough for her behavior and her tactlessness.

"I understand…" the two toned woman said "that's some tough shit you're going through…"

Strangely that sentence created an unexpected reaction in Emily. She was boiling with fury… She had to take it all out and so, she burst:

"You _understand_ ?! Please tell me, when was the last time you woke up and there was an entire year of your life that you had forgotten about? Or tell me about the day you discovered that your boyfriend was cheating on you with your best friend and that you got engaged to your other best friend! Better yet, tell me how it feels to meet someone who says she is your best friend and who probably knows your entire life when you know nothing about her, like her last name for exemple…"

As soon as all this had gone out of her mouth, she had calmed down. She was ashamed to have screamed like that… Kaitlyn only wanted to show her support…

There was a deafening silence in the room… Emily didn't know what to say and Kaitlyn didn't want to fuel the other's anger.

After a few minutes without any of the two speaking, Kaitlyn finally spoke:

"Bonin"

"What?"

"That's my last name. Kaitlyn is not my real name, it's my ring name… Punk introduced me to you as Kaitlyn and you just called me like that, a lot of people do. When I told you my real name was Celeste, you were already used to calling me Kaitlyn so…"

"Oh… Do you want me to call you Celeste instead?" Emily asked quietly, as if she was apologizing.

"No, that would be too weird! Call me Kaitlyn, please!"

They smiled. Things weren't like they used to be, and they probably never would be again but there was still that connection between the two. They felt like they shared something, no matter if they knew each other or not.

There are people in life towards who you feel an immediate sympathy. We just know we are going to like them because they have that kind of familiar and reassuring presence… Emily knew it was what she was feeling towards Kaitlyn, and she relaxed a little.

They both turned around when they heard the keys in the lock. They saw the top of a baseball cap and knew it was Punk.

"So?" he asked without looking at them, leaving his keys in the trinket bowl next to the door.

"So what?" asked Emily.

"You had time to talk? Nothing is coming back?"

He send a look towards Kaitlyn and he got his answer just by seeing the sadness in her eyes.

"Okay then…" his shoulders lowered but his face remains neutral.

He went into the kitchen and picked up a bottle of Pepsi from the fridge. He took one of his Comic books on the coffee table and settled down on the couch.

"Please ladies, don't mind me!"

They exchanged a look and Kaitlyn rolled her eyes, which made Emily smile. She wasn't sure about it but she had the feeling that the straight edge superstar and the Texan Diva weren't the best of friends.

"I think I'm going to leave you two alone!" Kaitlyn said.

"You go back to Houston?" Punk asked, raising his head from his comics.

"No… I'm going to stay in a hotel for tonight and tomorrow I'll go to AJ's… She's home since she didn't have to accompany Dolph to Smackdown!"

Punk nodded. Usually, he would have had insisted for her to stay and not pay for an hotel room – well Emily would have had insisted and he wouldn't have had a choice – but right now, he really needed some alone time with his fiancée.

Emily accompanied her to the front door, hugging her awkwardly before saying goodbye.

When she came back into the living-room, she collapsed on the couch next to him.

"Long day, hum?"

"I feel it is never going to end…" she sighed.

He smiled and took her hand, kissing the tip of her fingers. She watched him with surprise. Not surprised by the gesture, she had had all day to understand he was her boyfriend – fiancé even- it is exactly that kind of small gesture that couples did but because the contact oh his lips on her skin didn't feel strange at all, it felt very natural.

She removed her hand anyway and got up:

"I… I'm going to bed. Good night!"

She offered him an hesitant smile and left for her room. She spent a few minutes removing her makeup and spread some water on her face. She changed into the only Pajamas on the pile that weren't one of Punk's T-shirt and got into bed. She tried to read the book on the nightstand but she had visibly already started it, but of course, she didn't remember the beginning. She didn't want to read anyway. She closed her eyes and started to fall asleep.

A few minutes later, or so she thought, she felt the covers being pushed over. She opened her eyes to see a shirtless CM Punk getting inside.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, a voice full of sleepiness.

"I'm getting into bed!"

"In MY bed?"

"In OUR bad! Listen Em', I'm not going to change everything because you're going through some sort of… existential crisis! This is my apartment too, and this is MY bed and MY life, okay?"

She got out of the bed and glared at him:

"No, I'm sorry, I can't! This is too much!"

"What?!"

"I don't want us to sleep in the same bed!" she screamed.

"Stop it now, this is getting ridiculous! We've shared the same bed many times before we got together, this is the same!" he was starting to lose his nerves as well.

"No, this isn't the same! At the time, we weren't… we hadn't…"

"So what? I'm not going to jump you! I just want to sleep, this has been a hard day for me too, you know!"

She picked up her bathrobe and a cover:

"You can't ask that of me! You can't!" she murmured, tears evident in her voice.

He said nothing for a minute, closing his eyes to ignore her. When he opened them, he looked at her:

"Are you crying?" he asked soflty "Please, tell me you're not crying…"

She didn't answer but the teardrop that rolled on her cheek did it for her.

He sighed, got up and went to look for another cover in the closet.

"I'm going to sleep on the couch!"

"Thank you!" she whispered.

"Whatever!" he said, anger in his voice.

He left the room without even looking at her. She just collapsed on the floor, crying. He was going to hate her and she didn't want that. She didn't know what she wanted actually. Their relationship was going to be really ambiguous in the next few days. What was she to do? She couldn't act like they had never been anything more than friends. But she couldn't just give into him and marry him either.

She cried for half an hour before she fell asleep again, feeling completely empty inside.

A dozen of hours later, she woke up with a massive headache. Not even during her time at college where she had partied pretty hard and had woken up the face on the toilet seat, had she felt like her head had been banged into a wall like right now.

She got upon autopilot movement and went to the bathroom. She opened the cabinet and took two aspirins with a gulp of water.

She spread water on her face. She had to find courage to get through the day after what happened with Punk the night before.

She went into the living room and went straight to the kitchen without even looking at the couch. She made herself a strong coffee and went back to the living room.

She looked at the couch… empty! He was gone!

She looked around her to see if he hadn't left a note or something but nothing. He had just disappeared… Maybe had she dreamed the all thing?

**Thank you so much for your reviews and your subscriptions…. =D**


	4. Souvenirs souvenirs

**Chapter 4**

**Souvenirs souvenirs**

A dream… Yeah maybe it had all been a dream… it was the most plausible explanation.

She sat on the couch and sighed. Though, if it had only been a dream, that couldn't explain the cover rolled into a ball on the end of the couch, or the Comic books on the coffee table, or the many pictures of her and Punk all over the apartment… But how could all that be _real_?

She had to know for sure. She decided to call the only person that would never lie to her, her mother:

"Hello?"

"Mom…"

"Oh honey, Philip called me this morning and told me what happened to you. I'm sorry, Sweetheart!" the voice had a quick flow, never stopping to breathe, just like usual.

"I don't understand what is going on… Is this all true?"

It wasn't a real question. More like a rhetorical one. Her mother answered none the less:

"Yes… Yes, Honey, this is all true! You and Phil are getting married in a few months…"

"But how?"

"You were feeling really down when you broke up with Josh, you even thought about coming back home… All the people that you knew had chosen Mindy and Josh's side because your colleagues didn't want to lose their jobs and the others were mainly Josh's friends… But Philip was there for you… He put you back on your feet and forced you to live again… I didn't really like it when I learned you were together… I mean, when I saw him with all the tattoos and the 'whatever' attitude he had, nonchalant as you call it! But you asked me to give him the benefit of the doubt and I did, and I'm glad I did…"

"Really?" Emily wasn't convinced.

"Yes, I've never known anybody with so much respect for others… He is respectful towards the elderly, towards women… He didn't have an easy childhood and it could have turned him into a delinquent but it didn't. Quite the contrary, he knows he has a good life now and he cherishes it and the people in it… You've never been more loved by anyone as you are today by Philip…"

Emily felt like crying again.

"He doesn't treat you like a princess but like a real person, as it should be. You know yourself, you get to have a big head whenever someone's too nice to you but he brings you back to earth and he fills your eyes with stars…" she could hear the smile through the phone.

"Do… Do I love him?"

"You thought you were in love with Josh but you told me once, it was nothing compared to what you were feeling towards Philip… And I would never have let you get married if I hadn't known you were both madly in love and he was the man of your life… he is, trust me! The only person I have seen with that much love when he looks at you was your father when he was looking at me…"

This time, the tears were flowing… Linda, Emily's mother, didn't speak often about her late husband. He had died a few years back, leaving her a widow forever. Their love had been well known in Chicago because she had left her family at age 14 to be with him because her family had forbidden it. They were often called the Romeo and Juliet of modern ages. To compare that with what she had with Punk meant a lot. Her mother truly believed in them.

"I'm glad you're marrying him, there's no better man for you!" Linda went on.

"But I can't… I can't marry him…"

"Are you crying? Oh honey, you shouldn't cry. You will remember, you'll see! And then you will forget about this all thing…"

"I don't think I will…"

"Do you want me to come? Maybe it will be best… I'll be on the plane and…" Linda was trying to find her tablet to find the next plane ride to Chicago.

"Plane?"

"I'm on a cruise in Bermuda… But this is not a problem, I can come home and take care of you…"

"No mom, of course not! Enjoy your cruise!"

"What about you?" Asked Linda with worry.

"I… I think it's something I have to fix on my own…"

They talked more for a few minutes and it felt good for Emily… Her mother was still the same person. She talked about the cruise and the stops they already made, the souvenirs she had bought that would never fit in her suitcase because she had bought too many… It made her daughter laugh… She wanted to do what she had wanted when she had broken up with Josh and go home to her mother to forget about everything. But it wasn't possible and even if it had been, Emily would have had to go back to her "real" life at one point anyway. When she hung up, she felt lighter and as if she had a new weight on her shoulder at the same time.

In the street, Kofi Kingston was waiting in the bus that he shared with the Best in the World, CM Punk. Punk should have been on the sidewalk with his bag, ready to leave but it had been 10 minutes and he was nowhere to be seen. Kofi sighed, he didn't want to get out of the bus and to go look for him in the apartment he shared with Emily. Though he didn't mind seeing her, he liked her a lot. He was just lazy… He took out his phone and dialed Punk's number:

"Yeah?"

"Man, where are you? You're never late…"

"Oh… sorry Kofi… I.. I went for a jog to empty my head and I haven't looked at the time. I'll be here in 10!"

"You went for a jog? Did you forget I was coming? Because of you, I'll have to park because I can't stay double-parked like that…" the Ghanaian sighed.

"Sorry… Something happened with Emily and… I'll tell you on the road… I need to go home and pack first. We're outta here in 45 minutes max, don't worry!"

Before Kofi could ask anything about Emily, the Chicago native had hung up… Something wasn't right… To a lot of people, Punk was a reserved guy, he didn't share his thoughts and his feelings much but Kofi was one of the exceptions. He could see Phil Brooks the human being behind the character of CM Punk.

Throughout the years, he had learned to know his friend like the back of his hand and he knew he wasn't alright… Had he broken up with Emily?

No, he shouldn't try to guess too much, Punk would tell him and he would help him find a solution.

As promised, Punk was there 10 minutes later, sweating a lot and music in his ears. He went to the bus and Kofi opened the door:

"Hey, you okay?" asked the high flyer.

Punk shrugged, he didn't want to answer. He shut his IPod off and swiped the sweat off of his forehead.

"I'm sorry, I haven't packed yet… My stuff was in the bedroom and… Anyway, whatever! I'm going now, it won't be long I promise!"

Usually Kofi would have complained. He was known to be a very punctual person and he liked that reputation. But Punk's behavior confirmed that there was something wrong… He nodded, he didn't want to go against the straight edge wrestler. He closed the door of the bus after Punk left and waited patiently.

On his side, Punk was insulting himself. How could he have forgotten than Kofi was coming to get him? All that stuff with Emily was getting to him… He had barely slept that night, because he had spent the previous week dreaming about his bed probably and he had had to settle for the couch and also because he had kept replaying in his head what the doctor had said… What shock could have caused _that_? And why was the time period her subconscious had taken her back was when she was with Josh? Why not him? Did that mean that she wasn't happy with him? That she didn't consider their relationship safe enough?

He arrived at the top of the stairs and hesitated before entering… Should he just go in or should he knock?

Emily heard a knock on the door. She froze. What if it was someone that pretended to know her, that she was supposed to know but she wouldn't know who it was? Maybe it was Kaitlyn again? Though she had felt a connection to the blonde beauty, she didn't really want to talk right now…

The knocks started again and she decided to open. On the other side was a hard-breathing, sweating CM Punk with questioning eyes.

In a sudden movement, she pushed herself against him, got on her tiptoes and put her lips on his.

Saying that Punk was surprised would be a euphemism. He was expecting pretty much everything but that. Yet, he soon relaxed into it and enjoyed the moment he had been waiting for since the beginning of all this the previous day.

He put his hands on her hips, he didn't care at all that he was sweating on her. One of his hand went up her back and he placed the other behind her head, his fingers going through her hair. He kissed her like never before. He put all his passion, his frustration, all the relief and the love he felt into that kiss.

He could feel her quiver under him and he step back, panting.

"You remember?" he asked, full of a renewed hope.

She took his face between her hands and made him put his forehead against hers.

"No… I'm sorry… I just thought it might worked if I kissed you, but it didn't…"

He stepped away from her, he was disappointed and offended… She probably wasn't doing it on purpose but his ego had been put through torture the past 24 hours…

"I called my mother… She told me you're the man of my life… I know she wouldn't just say that… She likes you. I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't surprise me because it does!"

"Your mother is an extraordinary woman and I admire her a lot!" he said with tenderness "As for me being the man of your life… I don't know…"

Emily took his hand and put it on her heart. Though technically, it would be more correct to say she put it on her breast. That gesture strangely made Punk blush.

"I don't want to hurt you… I feel bad because I did last night… This is really not what I wanted… I'm not even sure I know what I want… I want to make you happy and remember but it just doesn't work…"

He could feel Emily's heart racing under his fingers. She was going through a lot, more than him…

"I just need time… and space…" she said, squeezing his hand tighter.

"I leave with Kofi in the bus… Yes, I have a bus, it is more convenient! I'm going to leave you all the time and the space that you need." He said gently as he removed his hand.

"I'm not throwing you out!" she said, hurt. She felt rejected even though she was trying to show him how much he meant to her.

"I know that but… I think I need space too!"

That's what Lars had advised him. His friend, the guitar player of Rancid, was almost a good adviser. He had told him to let her have some time to think but to take some as well, just to get to imagine a new life where Emily might never remember what had happened in the previous year.

"I don't want you to leave on the streets!" protested Emily.

"No, no… The bus is fine, really! We even have lived there for a while, you and I…"

He was feeling he was getting into the touchy subjects of happy memories and decided to stop now and pack his things. He was not here to convince her to be with him. Even if she wasn't his Emily anymore, she was still the young woman that had been his friend for years and he knew she was doing things at her own rhythm, he shouldn't push her.

He went into the room and tossed his clothes and ring gear into a bag, he did the same in the bathroom with his toiletries. He then took his jacket and checked his phone was in the front pocket of his bag.

"You don't even shower?" she asked as she was watching him in the frame of the door.

"No time, Kofi is waiting downstairs!"

Once he had verified he had everything he needed, he made his way to the hallway but he went back to her. As he reached her, he leaned down as if to kiss her but at the last second, he decided to go for a friendly hug.

"Well then… I'm gonna go!" he said awkwardly.

He threw his bag on his shoulder and went, leaving Emily alone.

She stayed there for a moment, watching the front door he had just gotten through. She didn't know what to feel: sadness? Because he had tried to help her and she had done nothing but push him away. Contentment? Because he had understood that she needed time. Anger? Because he was leaving her alone in that mess.

One thing was certain, she was feeling alone. Not that she had never been alone, but she had never felt that emotionally abandoned. Usually when she was feeling down, she would call Mindy but now… Who?

She went through the contact list of her phone. Half of the people in there meant nothing to her. As for the rest, it was only her doctor, her dentist, her gynecologist, her banker, the tattooist… The TATTOOIST?! Why did she have the number of a tattoo parlor in her phone? That Punk had one or many of those numbers in his phone seemed normal, but her? She rushed to the bathroom and took off all of her clothes. How could she have not seen she had a tattoo? She looked at her reflection but no tattoo there… She sighed of relief!

It's only when she turned around that she noticed it, on her right shoulder, a smiling little ball of fire… She DID get a tattoo?!

She went back to the living room and looked in her photo albums… She must have had taken a picture of that moment, so she could have an idea of since when her skin was no longer ink free.

She went through the album of last year… She found plenty of pictures of her and Punk kissing after the painful tattoo had been down. He had the same in the middle of his right leg… Therefore, they were connected forever.

She felt shameful again… yeah, she must have been really in love to get a tattoo, not that she didn't like it but she had always been afraid of needles.

She meditated for a moment, then took back her phone, looking for a certain number… She went through the contact list in vain, she didn't know the people from WWE and it was mostly there in the list. She had already called her mother and she didn't want to worry her more than she already did… Then there was Colt, but he was Punk's best friend and that would be too… weird!

Natalie! She should call Natalie! Without thinking any further, she pushed the call button:

"Hey there, you've reached Natalie Slater's voicemail. I'm actually touring through the US to promote my new book for Bake and Destroy and have like no time for you… So you can hang up! Come on, hang up! Byebye!"

It wasn't her luck. The only person that she still knew and she couldn't reach her…

If only she had kept contact with the girls at work. Why had they lost contact anyway? Okay, they didn't work together but why weren't they friends anymore?

They had used to go out shopping all the time together, it's with them she went to watch romantic movies in theatre because Josh didn't want to go, or they simply used to go to lunch together…

After many efforts to remember it, she managed to dial Janet's number:

"Hello? Janet Michael's speaking!"

"Hi, Janet! It's Emily!"

"Oh my God! Emily?! Like Emily, the girl who used to work with us?"

"You've got Emily Crawley on the phone?" she could hear Marion's voice in the back.

"Why are you calling us?"

The question made her laugh. Janet and Marion were like joined by the hip and when you called one of them, you were sure to have the both of them on the line.

"I… I woke up in a big fog yesterday and to make it short, I'm trying to understand what happened in the last year and a half!"

There was a silence, an awkward silence from the other end of the line… Which was weird because they ALWAYS had something to say… Always…

"We could try to lie in order to get you back… because we really miss you, you know…" Marion said.

"But we're not gonna lie because that's the reason you're not speaking to us anymore… When you say 'fog', you mean…"

"I mean that I don't remember the last year and a half. I woke up thinking that I was still working with you, that I was still going out with Josh and that Mindy…" she started to explain _again._

"We knew about Josh and Mindy!" Janet blurted "We knew all about it and didn't say anything…"

Oh… That explained why they weren't on speaking terms anymore… Though she couldn't help but think they had hidden the truth to protect her from the heartbreak she had inevitably felt. And if she felt like that today, she must have thought about it at the time…

"The worst is we helped her cover it up… Mindy, I mean… We wanted to please the boss you know… We didn't think of what it was doing to you…"

Okay, THAT was another story… She felt bad again, betrayed… She wanted to hang up, go to bed and cry.

"I… I need to go!" she whispered into the phone.

"Emily, wait! We would understand if you never called again… And in that case, we want to apologize again and wish you a happy life, filled with better friends than we were…"

She stuttered a 'thank you' and hung up, collapsing on the couch. She could smell Punk's scent there, and it felt strangely relaxing…

In a few months, Emily Crawley's life had changed completely, she had lost people that she thought would be with her forever and new people had come into her life.

And then, there was Punk… The man of her life according to her mother… It was going to be work to make everything fall back into place in her head and in her life…

**I hope this story hasn't bored you yet… Please, let me know what you think!**

**I have a question for you: Do you think Emily needs to remember to have a happy ending?**

**Till next time!**


	5. Acceptation

**Chapter 5**

**Acceptation**

Emily didn't know what to do with herself in that apartment… She had gone out already to buy some stuff she didn't even need and now she was just bored out of her mind.

She wondered what she had been doing when Punk had been on the road before… He had told her that she had accompanied him most of the time, but what had she done the rest of it?

She had tried to watch TV but even with a year and a half gone from her memory, all she could find were TV shows or movies she had already seen or stupid reality TV shows… She soon forgot about her idea of spending time watching TV altogether…

No, what she really now was human contact but who could she call? She had already tried to go through her contact list and it had led pretty much nowhere.

She would have loved to call Punk but after the way he had "ran away", it was probably best not to… Though she had like a million questions and he seemed to be the only one capable of answering them… She notably had questions about he and Lita, and thus even though he had tried to make a summary of what had happened.

Thinking about them together, Emily thought that that were evidence, they were made for each other. They were one and the same but they had managed to keep some sort of independence. She had often thought that if he was ever to settle down, it would be with the beautiful redhead…

She couldn't believe that such a stable and happy relationship had gone to shit in only a few months without them trying to make it work… Unless Punk had been really in love with Emily before he had even finished things off with Amy, but that would mean that she was partially responsible for the breakup… What had been her role in all of this? According to Punk, she had nothing to do with it but maybe he had minimized her implication for her not to feel guilty? That might be it. But she couldn't call him to know for sure…

In that case, she knew there was only one thing to do. She went through the cabinets, looking for Punk little black book, even though he also kept his contacts in his phone, he liked to keep them written, 'old school' as he said. If he was living here, the black book had to be here too.

She finally found it and went to look for the D letter for 'Dumas Amy'. She had trouble to read the numbers because of the weirdly tiny and italic handwriting of the wrestler. As soon as she was sure she had it right, she dialed it:

"Yeah?" asked a strong feminine voice.

"Amy? Hi, it's Emily… Emily Crawley…"

"Are you fucking kidding me, bitch?" roared the former wrestler.

She hung up before Emily could say anything else. Emily was stupefied for a time and came back to herself when she heard the bips on the line.

Well, that was something! Visibly, Punk hadn't lied when he had said that things hadn't ended well…

Somehow she was pissed about the reaction of the redhead because as she didn't remember, she felt she hadn't done anything wrong to her… But of course, Lita didn't know about that… And she probably wouldn't want to know anyway…

They may have never been friends, they had been friendly enough for Punk's sake. It was something really important for him that the people he cared about got along because they would have to see each other a lot…

So, to make him happy, they had gotten to know each other but Emily hadn't felt the "connection" she had with Kaitlyn. According to Lita, Emily was a goody two-shoes that was hiding who she was and what she really liked inside. And according to Emily, Amy was too flashy, too willing of showing how badass and Punk she could be, it seemed fake. She felt you didn't have to get tattoos or scream whatever you were feeling to the world to have a personality and her tastes, some things are private and are better this way. They are more enjoyable when they are your special secret because it feels more it is something that belongs to you…

Yet, there had never been bad blood between the two of them, well before anyway, and most of the time they had agreed against Punk when he was being as stubborn as a middle-scholar.

She tried calling again, though she didn't really know why… Try to explain herself? Or get mad at the other?

The redhead picked up again:

"What do you want?" her tone was still very much not friendly but it was calmer than before.

"I… hum…"

"I can't fucking believe it! You call me after stabbing me in the back and you play mute?"

"I've lost my memory!"

And in a breath, she told her everything… She didn't leave any blank space for the other to say anything and once she was done, she was panting and she even wondered if the former Diva hadn't hung up again…

"If what you say is true then I don't see how I can help you… In case you haven't noticed, we are not the best of friends…" the readhead cut the silence after a few seconds.

"I would like you, and feel free to say no because I can only imagine how uncool this is gonna be, to tell me how things ended between Punk and you and what was my role into all of it…"

She heard a sigh on the other end of the line and then a weird sound, as if Lita was muffling a laugh:

"I'm going to tell you because you and your memory loss stuff seem really pathetic… I suppose this isn't funny to have people fill in the blanks of your own life…"

"No, I can't say that I've enjoyed it so far!"

The redhead sighed again. To tell her all of it would be like living it again and she had just started to move on… She was going out with a musician, Mike McColgan, the singer of the band "Street Dogs" for a weeks and for the first time since Punk, she was thinking this could go somewhere…

"I suppose it all started when you left John…"

"Josh!"

"Yeah, whatever… You were in a bad shape, you were seriously fucking crying all day, you weren't eating anymore and you were barely sleeping more than 2 hours per night… A fucking zombie, I swear!"

Amy was known to be pretty crude with her words. She was the female version of CM Punk when it came to say what she was really feeling inside and she didn't care much about the other person's feelings…

"I think that even Colt couldn't make you smile… Anyway, you know how Punk is, every time he had a friend in need, he acts like mother Theresa… And this time wasn't an exception. All of your friends had betrayed you and you were alone, except for Natalie but she was in the middle of writing her book so Punk proposed to take care of you and no shit, you really needed that!"

Emily could easily imagine how she must have been lost and confused but not to the point where she had needed someone to take care of her…

"It was so pathetic, you looked like a 15 year-old with a broken heart… Anyway, he stayed with you for a while, which was cool because for once, he was in Chicago for more than a week! But you were taking 75% of his time… He had asked me to join you but watching "Titanic" and "The Notebook" over and over again, I would have rather hanged myself! I don't even know how he hadn't gone crazy…"

"Actually, he kinda likes those movies… once in a while!" Emily said, remembering all the nights they had been watching chick flicks because Amy and Josh were feeling too cool for it.

"Whatever, anyway, you must have done all the clichés of the helpless romantic girl: watching stupid lovey dovey movies in your pajamas, eating ice cream in the box, listening to Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, reading magazines on how to get over a bad breakup and so on with the list of bullshit… Phil was there the whole time and you were glued to him like a mussel to a rock… I admit that I was mad because it was the first time in forever that he had taken a leave and he was spending it with you and not me, it was frustrating!"

That, Emily could understand… But she must have not seen it at the time, too absorbed in her pseudo depression…

"And then came the time when Vince asked Punk to come back. He called him himself… I know you weren't following at the time, or may still not, but Punk was at the highest of his career when he left for you… Anyway, he had to go back, the company needed him… But he didn't want you to be all alone… I think you had called your mother to go back home but he didn't let you because he knew it wouldn't help so he brought you with him on the roads… Even I had had rarely the honor of coming with him on his bus so yeah, on that point too I had not been too happy and I made it known!"

Emily could remember a few fights between those two because of the bus, Punk called it a sanctuary and no girls were allowed to pollute it…

"At the beginning, he was lending you his bed and went to sleep on a bunk bed. But he hurt his neck and you wanted him to have his bed back, he wanted to stay in the bunks and you finally agreed to share the bed… And he didn't get why I was so angry!"

A bitter laugh escaped the lips of the former Women's champion… Apparently, it hadn't been something she could have let go…

"So I pressured him into letting me join in on the bus… You had to go to the bunks eventually… Punk wasn't happy that I had pushed you aside but I didn't bulge, I couldn't sleep knowing you two were sharing a bed… I did all I could for him to spend more time with me and you seemed okay with it because you were spending all your time with the little Diva… Kaitlyn! But whatever I did, you were always back, I found you two watching the Walking Dead together, reading comics, laughing… I was going crazy because I felt he was running away from me to be with you…"

There was a silence for a time. Emily wondered if Lita wasn't crying but the voice spoke again, with no sign of her being upset:

"I'm not very proud of myself but… I caught you and warned you a little bit violently to go back to your life in Chicago, but you didn't want to… So I threatened you… I don't know if it's the threat or if you had realized you weren't welcome anymore, but you left. I thought he wouldn't let you go but you insisted that you wanted to put order back in your life or something like that… I know Phil was expecting me to leave as well but all that happened with you had made me uncomfortable and paranoid… When his storyline with AJ had started, I wanted to be there for every backstage scene, every training… I know I was smothering him but I was feeling more and more like he was running away from me… And I certainly made things worse… He wanted to break up… I was driving him crazy and he felt like I had no trust in him… I thought he was lying to be with you… After all, since you had been there, he was not making any effort to make our relationship work, he wasn't calling, I knew better what was happening in WWE from Nattie than from him, when I came he wasn't talking to me, it's you that told me he had injured his neck…"

Emily felt uncomfortable… Lita wasn't a bed person, she didn't deserve to have hurt that much…

"Deep down, I mustn't have been so wrong because a few weeks later, he called me to tell me you were together. He didn't want me to learn it from somebody else… I mostly thought he was rubbing it in my face… And soon, everybody in the WWE knew about it and I received a ton of messages and phone calls from assholes that where pitying me, I wanted cut their head off and spike it on my wall… And a few months ago, he called me again telling me you were engaged… I admit that 'congratulations' was not the first word that came to my mind…"

She stopped talking and fell silent. Emily kept silent as well, trying to register all that Amy had told her…

"I'm really sorry…"

"What?!" the readhead asked, surprised.

"I'm really sorry, I don't think I said it before so… I'm sorry I played such a role in your breakup and to be one of reasons of your unhappiness… I can promise you that if I had known how much he hurt you, things would have gone differently…"

Silence again.

"Thanks… It's important to me… Anyway, it's all in the past now… I wish you two a lot of happiness…"

"I don't know about that… I think I ruined everything, he was trying to help me remember and I pushed him away…"

"So go to him, don't do like I did but… If he has to end up with someone else, I'd rather it be you… Spend some time with him and maybe it will come back…"

"Hey… Your head is not in the match!" said Bryan, known as Daniel Bryan.

"I… Sorry! I'm going to concentrate, okay?"

"You know what, we're gonna take a break! I have to go see Brianna anyway!"

On this, the little bearded man left the ring and waved at AJ, who was ringside. She approached Punk who had lied down in the middle of the practice ring.

"Hey…"

He turned his head towards her and offered a grimy smile.

"Hey…" he said back.

"No news of Emily, huh?"

"Nope… But after all, I'm the one who said I needed space…"

He sighed and facepalmed.

"As if she needed that to get away from me…"

She lied down next to him and contemplated the ceiling:

"It's not your fault! It's nobody's fault… It's just crazy what's happening to you guys!"

"I know… It's just that she rejected me as if I was some sort of monster that was trying to attack her… This is not something that… I have trouble with rejection! My parents rejected me all my life and… I thought that part of my life was all in the past… And I thought if there would be someone to never reject me, it would be her, my fiancée, the woman of my life!"

AJ looked at him and saw his eyes shine abnormally… She didn't know what to say… Thankfully for her, she didn't have to because Kofi and Kaitlyn came in then:

"You were right! Those two are together again!" Kaitlyn said.

"I have no merit though, I met Bryan in the hallway!"

"And I was starting to think you had some sort of superpowers!"

They stopped joking around when they saw the pained faces of their friends:

"What's going on?"

"Emily…"

Kaitlyn and Kofi frowned… In Kofi's case, it was because he had already been through this conversation with Punk plenty of times since they had left Chicago. In Kaitlyn's case, it was because she too was troubled by her best friend's memory loss and Punk had asked her to not call her, to leave her some time…

"Did you get news?" she asked.

"No… Did you?"

"Are you kidding me? She doesn't even know who I am! I'm pretty sure she has already forgotten my name…"

Punk looked at her and decided to sit back up, indian style in the middle of the ring:

"Can I speak alone with Kaitlyn, please?"

AJ and Kofi got the message and went for the exit, Kaitlyn sat next to him:

"I'm not gonna lie, it sucks that Emily and you are so close… I would have preferred it to be AJ instead but I can see how much you care about her and…"

"Although your little speech is very 'touching', and trust me, I'm touched…" she said ironically "It doesn't mean shit! I'm really fucked up… I know you think what you're going through is horrible but… At least, she remembers you. You're not a total stranger… You don't have to start all over…"

They remained silent for a while, Punk even lied back down and started making snow angels:

"What was that about AJ?" she asked with a smile.

"When Emily quit, she didn't know what to do with her life and I brought her on the roads with us… I thought it would be nice for her to meet new people, so I introduced her to April… They got on well but then April introduced you two and… I thought she would have more things in common with AJ, but that's probably because I do…"

"Sorry to have ruined your plans!"

They smiled at each other.

"But I can't help that I'm so cool!" she laughed.

"Yeah… You're not that bad after all!"

They heard the door of the gym opening up but they didn't turn around, thinking it was another superstar coming to train.

"Hi!"

This time, they turned around when they heard the little voice that they knew belonged to someone they knew very well:

"Emily?!" they asked at the same time.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you but… I would have loved to spend some time with you if that's okay. Maybe it will work better than torturing myself alone in the apartment!"

**Thank you so much for the reviews and the follows! Hope you still like it, if you do show it to me in the reviews PLEAAAAAAASE! =D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everybody, we are nearing the end of this story so please let me know what you think! I hope you like this chapter. It has a lot more characters and I tried to be a little funny, I hope you'll be able to understand my attempt at humor… On that, I'll let you read! **

**Chapter 6**

**Deception**

« But I swear to you, it's the truth ! »

"What's going on?" Seth Rollins asked as he came closer to where Emily and Dean Ambrose were having an animated conversation.

"Dean is trying to convince me that we had an affair before I lost my memory!"

"Dude, that's fucked up! That woman lost her memory and you're trying to take advantage of it? That's disgusting!" said the two toned wrestler as a sermon.

"'I'm not taking advantage of anything! And you don't know what you talking about! It was a secret affair! Only my best friend knew about it!" answered the brunette.

"I thought I was your best friend?" asked the former NXT champion, pretending to be heard.

"No, that's… Roman's my best friend, right Rom'?!"

The big brunette turned to his two tag team partners and sighed:

"If it makes you happy!"

"In that case, tell her we had a torrid affair and that she thought about leaving Punk for me, knowing I would never really give up on my bachelor lifestyle…"

The Samoan rolled his eyes but nodded anyway, probably more so for Dean to stop bugging him than to really correlate what he was saying.

"That's bullshit! If someone was to have an affair with Emily, it would be me and everybody knows that!" Rollins laughed.

"Okay then if I didn't have an affair with Emily, tell me how I know she has a tattoo of lips on her right ass cheek?"

Kaitlyn got closer to the group, she was trying to spend as much time as she could with Emily, to at least remind her why they had gotten so close the first time around. And indeed, Emily was feeling closer to the Diva and liked to spend time with her.

"Man, you're out of it! It's Kaitlyn that has that tattoo!"

"And how do you know that?" Ambrose laughed.

"How do _you_?" asked the semi-brunette semi-blonde wrestler in a childish manner.

"No, the real question is how do you both know about that?!" Kaitlyn asked, scaring the two men that hadn't realized she was there.

They both shared a look, blushing… They tried to get help from Roman but the big man decided he was hearing his phone ring and he went away to answer the imaginary phone call.

"I… I may have, by accident, the other night, come into the wrong locker room and it might have been right when you were about to take a shower… But I didn't see anything, I swear!" apologized her hair twin.

"Anything but my tattoo?" she asked, not believing his apology "What about you?"

"I like to know who I'm working with so I looked you on the web and… You've made interesting photos in your days!" Ambrose smiled, regaining composure.

It was Kaitlyn's turn to blush… She had never done anything of too much bad taste but if her colleagues could have gone without knowing about some of the pictures of her modelling career, it would have been for the best…

Emily was smiling. She didn't know them much but she loved them deeply. Punk had told her she was getting along with everyone but she had her close group of friends: Kaitlyn (of course), AJ, Dean, Seth, Natalya and Alicia.

The smile disappeared soon. They were all so nice to her and were trying to make her life as easy as possible. Though every time she was running into them, she could see the look on their face, the one that said "does she remember me now?", followed by a furtive look of disappointment when they understood that she didn't and they were still acquaintances to her.

If the guys had taken the situation with humor, it wasn't the case with the girls, particularly Nattie and Victoria (Alicia Fox) who thought they would help her by mentioning some of their memories together all the time. And she had to apologize over again for not remembering any of it. It had become pretty boring and to be honest, it kind of pissed her off.

She was disappointed, she wanted to make them happy and in the meantime lose that feeling of never ending day after a huge party.

There were things she was totally ashamed to have forgotten: Kofi was a young baby daddy since a few months and she even had met the baby multiple times (she even had joked to Punk that she felt ready to be a mom because she was in love with the tiny hands and feet; he had turned green and had stuttered he wasn't ready for "that big challenge of life"), Colt had paused his wrestling career to try to become a full-time commentator (she trusted him to succeed because if there was one person in this world to have a mouth as prolific as Punk's, it was Colt Cabana)…

Colt had joked that maybe it was this news that had been the emotional shock that made Emily forget the past 2 years…

She interrupted her thoughts to look at the scene before her eyes: Kaitlyn, Seth and Dean were still bickering while AJ was filming them with her phone:

"You should be ashamed!"

"Everybody makes mistakes!"

"Not when there's 'DIVAS' written in big letters on the door! So, you need to apologize!"

"Yeah, apologize!" smiled Dean "It's really disgusting to play the pervert in the showers!"

"Okay, I apologize… But I'm not sorry I liked what I saw!" Seth apologized with a big grin.

Kaitlyn gasped and started to punch him. Emily didn't stay long enough to see if she was going to knock him out. She knew it was the time Punk finished his training, he usually collapsed on the big bed inside the bus and turned on the TV to watch the same episodes of The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad he had already seen a dozen times.

She would settle next to him and usually finished cuddled up with him. And then she would force him to watch an episode of New Girl. He pretended he didn't like it but she glanced at him a few times during the episode and he would smile a little…

When she made it to the bus, she was surprised to see e was already there waiting for her:

"Hey… I thought we could watch a movie for once…"

"Sure… What is it?" she asked as she sat on the bed.

"Avengers… It's not as good as the Comics but it's pretty good!" he said as he put the DVD in the DVD player.

"Did I see it already?"

He nodded but remained expressionless.

"Did I like it?" she asked.

"I'm not telling! I want to see your reaction after the movie! It's not every day you get to see a movie for the first time a second time!" he smiled enigmatically.

It was his new thing to positive about the whole situation. He made her do things and waited to see her reactions to see if they matched the ones she had after the first times. His last experiment: parachuting.

Her first reaction as she landed had been to throw up. Punk had laughed hysterically because that was the way she had reacted before as well. She had run after him and had tried to punch him with her little fists. How dared he make her do something that her stomach couldn't bear _again_?

The movie started and they got comfy on the bed. She received a text from Kaitlyn asking where she had gone. Oops, she had been absorbed in her thoughts and she had forgotten to tell the others she was going to the bus… She answered she was watching a movie with Punk and she would join her later.

She was not thrilled at the idea of sleeping in the same bed as Punk so Kaitlyn had proposed to share a hotel room. She knew that Punk would have preferred for her to come on the bus, even if that meant not sleeping in the same bed, but she already felt too uncomfortable without adding the pressure of sleeping so close yet so far from one another…

Colt had laughed that Punk might be the first fiancé in history to be friendzoned. It didn't make him laugh and Emily had felt more uncomfortable than ever before…

She knew that trying to have only an amical relationship would make him hurt. She had just not realized how much before that joke. Since then, she noticed the little things: he was opening his arms for her to settle in when they were watching TV, he was taking her hand when they went somewhere and more often than not wouldn't let go once arrived, he was leaning into her when they said goodbye as if he was about to kiss her and changed it into an awkward hug…

All those little things indicated he wanted more. He wanted to be nice to her by being just her friend but deep down she knew he wanted to act like a fiancé with his bride-to-be.

Deep down, it wouldn't have bothered Emily to have him taking her hand or kissing her; she had gotten used to the idea of being together with him though she was still far from being certain she was in love with him. But he wasn't trying anymore and she just wasn't trying. She was afraid he might take things a little too far too fast when she still needed time to convince herself that the peroxided blond teenager that she had known once upon a time had turned into the man that shared her life.

The movie ended and she jumped around, joyfully:

"I wanna marry Tom Hiddleston!" she squealed "Loki is the best thing ever… well maybe with the Joker!"

Punk laughed.

"It's even better than the 1st time but you still like the villain best! You know, you're not supposed to like the bad guys!"

"It's not my fault, they are far more interesting and deep than the heroes, and they are all cute and good looking!"

"Okay I can see why you say that about Loki but the Joker? He's just crazy!" he teased her.

"Crazy cool you mean? And don't bad mouth the Joker, okay?" she threatened him.

He just smiled and took her in his arms:

"I wouldn't even think of it! And people wonder why I like to be a heel best!" she grinned.

"Yeah… But you're like a moral giver bad guy, that's not as sexy!"

"You mean you find Loki sexier than me?"

"You mean the you with greasy long hair like Severus Snape and a 14-inches-long beard… Do you really want me to answer that?" she joked.

"I thought you liked beards?"

"Yeah but not when you start to resemble Jesus! I like when you take a little bit care of you!"

"Okay okay… But if you have to compare Loki to the me of now?" he was smiling but she could see he seemed a little curious about her answer.

She put her hand on her chin and tapped her index finger against her lips, as if in deep thought:

"It's really hard to compare… He's a movie character and you are right here… And he is a god!" he tried to remain serious.

"So?" he insisted.

"I would say you are handsomer because you don't need make up or a fucking amazing wardrobe to look cool!" she smiled.

He smiled, proud like he had just won a match:

"And now, let's answer this question: who is sexier between you and Black Widow?"

She took a pillow and threw it at his face: "Stop it, that's not cool! You know I don't stand the comparison! That's one of the reason I hate Scarlett Johanson!"

He caught the pillow mid-air and smiled, getting closer to her "I think she doesn't stand a chance!"

Emily's cheeks turned bright red, which made him laugh. He could be so sweet sometimes and ruined it the next second by laughing out loud.

"I… need to go, Kaitlyn is going to be worried!"

Punk's smile faded. He didn't like the moments she left him.

"I'm coming with you!" he said.

They both left the bus. The sun had set a long time ago and the parking lot wasn't well lit. In an unconscious gesture, she took his hand. He looked at their interlocked fingers but didn't say anything. She followed his gaze and realized what she had done but instead of getting it back, she left her hand in his. She didn't want to upset him and to be truthful, she liked it that way.

They walked silently to the hotel. That's what she liked about him, he didn't have the need to fill in the blanks. They just enjoyed each other's company without having to talk about the weather or mindless things like that…

Once in the hotel, they walked to the elevator where were Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins:

"Kaitlyn left you alive?" she laughed.

"Laugh all you want, but this is all your fault!" Ambrose half grinned.

"What?!" she was shocked.

"Dude, you're too much! If you didn't want to make her believe you were her lover, we wouldn't be in that position!" Seth said.

"What are you talking about?" Punk asked.

The three others repeated their earlier conversation. Dean, though, tried to keep a low profile, fearing what his mentor might do to him. But to his surprise, the straight-edge wrestler laughed:

"Not to be rude, Ambrose, but if Emily had to cheat on me with someone, it would never be with you…"

"Hey!" said the leader of the Shield.

"I would be more worried about Rollins!" Punk finished his thought.

"Ahah! I told you so!" Seth said smiling until he met the glare CM Punk was sending his way "Not that you need to worry about me at all!"

"Stop it now!" screamed Emily, attracting the three men's attention on her "I'm not the kind of girl to cheat on anyone! And anyway, I would never do it with either of you, even if I had to! You are his clones! You three are the same!"

They all shared a look and laughed.

"Anyway, how did you escape Kaitlyn?" she asked, trying to ignore their giggles.

"Well, at first, she wanted us to do her laundry for a month as an apology" started Rollins "but the pervert right there said out loud that he would love to play with her thongs!"

"As if you wouldn't!" Ambrose rolled his eyes.

"At least, I wouldn't have said it to her!"

"Anyway, she wants us to steal something from the bags of Mark Henry, Big Show and Great Khali now..."

"She wants you to get destroyed… Hmm I might have more things in common with her than I imagined!" Punk smiled, thoughtful.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Both members of the Shield remained inside, their rooms being on the next floor. Punk and Emily said goodbye and made their way to her room.

"I would like to tell you to come in but Kaitlyn said no boys in the room!"

"Fuck Kaitlyn!" he smiled taking her card key.

The door opened on the blonde wearing her pajamas and a messy bun with a few strands coming out of it. Apparently, she had already removed her make-up, she was going to go sleeping.

"Kaitlyn thanks you!" she said deadpan.

Punk winced and stepped back. He had hoped the young Diva would not be there, to be alone with Emily a little more.

"Em', don't take three hours to say goodbye! Don't forget we have an appointment tomorrow morning!" Kaitlyn said before leaving.

"I'm not forgetting! Anyway, Phil is coming with us to the doctor!" answered her roommate to the empty door frame.

She heard a roar inside the room… She had heard.

Emily turned to Punk and saw the shocked expression on his face:

"What's going on?" she asked, alarmed by it.

"Nothing… It's the first time that you call me 'Phil' since you've lost your memory… usually, you call me 'Punk'!"

"It means that things are changing perhaps…" she said, uncertain, biting her lower lip.

The face of the Second City Savior glowed but he made no comment, which Emily liked best.

From the room, she could hear Kaitlyn fake gagging. It made her blush and she realized how mellow her words had been.

"Hey Blondie, this is a private conversation you know!" Punk said as he heard her as well.

"Not in MY hotel room!"

"We're in the hallway!"

"The door is open!"

"And who opened it, huh?" he sneered.

Emily smiled. Those two liked to bicker. If she had thought they couldn't stand each other before; things had changed. The whole situation had brought them closer, but they were too proud to admit they liked each other and as they feared to appear stupid to others, they pretended to dislike each other and bickered all the time.

"Stop it, you two! Kait', I'll be there in a minute, okay? And you, stop bugging her!" she said, putting her index finger against the man's chest.

"Me? No, that's her… Oh, who cares? You don't stress too much about tomorrow?"

"No, I don't think the Doc' is gonna tell us anything new, so…"

"Yeah… It's probably Paul that we should take to a doctor, he's done a complete 180°… When I think you two couldn't stay in the same room for more than five minutes…"

Emily had gotten used to spend time during the shows with the promotor since she didn't want to bug the Superstars and Divas that were busy. Every time, he accompanied them back to the bus and spent hours talking to Emily. He liked her opinions on the business part of his job and her new fan opinions. Their sudden complicity had taken aback their mutual friend…

"Don't be jealous! You're still his favorite!" she laughed.

"I don't know about that…" he smiled "Well… I should leave! Good night!"

He leaned down and kissed her forehead. Emily rolled her eyes. Usually that gesture was enough but tonight she needed more from him:

"Sweet dreams!" he said going to the elevators.

She watched him leave, sad to not be courageous enough to ask him to stay or better yet, go with him.

"Punk, wait!" she ran after him "Can I borrow one of your T-Shirt, I have nothing to sleep in…"

"Can't Kaitlyn… Oh…" he just understood she was taking a leap to further their relationship "Sure, no problem!"

He took off his hoodie and gave it to her. She watched it as she wasn't expecting a jacket. She was about to thank him when she noticed he was now shirtless and handing to her the Limp Bizkit T-Shirt he had been wearing seconds before.

Despite herself, she blushed. It was idiotic, she had seen him shirtless countless times, she had certainly seen more, and anyway he was coming live on TV every week wearing only a tiny ring gear… It wasn't as much the lack of clothes but the gesture that made her blush, the intention behind it… He was silently telling her to sleep in the T-Shirt he had just been wearing, which was scented with his smell; it was… intimate.

"Thank you!" she whispered before getting on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek. She gave him his jacket back and went to her room, almost running. Once inside, she ran to her bed and sank her head into her pillow, not believing how much she behaved like a love-sick teenager. She put the shirt closer to her face. It was still warm and it smelled just like him…

"I can't believe you two aren't back together yet! You look like two teenagers that won't admit they like each other!" Kaitlyn said.

Emily didn't answer and stuck her tongue at her and turned the lamp on the nightstand off.

In the hallway, Punk was smiling while putting back on his jacket. This night had brought him only positive and hope for the future.

LATER:

"No memory?" Doctor Robinson asked "Nothing at all?"

Emily shook her head no. Nothing. At best, she had impressions of deja-vu but otherwise, nothing. Kaitlyn was looking at the doctor asking questions to his patient. He had insisted that Punk remained in the waiting room, but he had had caved in for Kaitlyn because Emily wanted her there.

"Then the examination is over! Do you want me to call Phil?" he asked.

She nodded and got off the auscultation table. She put back her top that she had had to take off in order to have her heartbeat listened to.

Punk came into the room a few seconds later and looked at them with wondering eyes as if they had secret information.

"I got in contact with some of my colleagues, specialists in those types of cases and they are unanimous. What Miss Crawley needs is another emotional shock. BUT it might not work and make things worse. The advice I can give you is try to find what the first shock was and maybe contact a psychiatrist. Medically, that's all I can do!"

As the first time, he left them alone in the room:

"It's because of an emotional shock that you're like that?" Kaitlyn asked.

"You didn't know?"

"You never spoke about it in details and I didn't ask so…"

"Anyway" Punk intervened "the real question is 'do you want to remember?' and if yes 'are you ready to make things possibly worse?"

They both looked at Emily who shrugged. She had come to like her new life, even if she kinda felt guilty for letting Punk pay for everything since she was no longer really his fiancée.

"I don't know… Anyway, what kind of shock would I need?" she asked.

"I think that's why he wants us to find out what the initial shock was…" Punk said, sitting on the table next to her.

"That might surprise you but… I don't remember!" she tried to joke but the others didn't laugh.

Punk offered her a sad smile and Kaitlyn seemed lost in her thoughts since she had closed her mouth.

"Kait', are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah… I'm fine! I… I think I know what happened to you!"

**Please leave a review to tell me what you thought about this chapter and the story so far!**


	7. Revelations

**Hello everybody! Thank you for reading this far… This is the chapter before the last one. It might be a little angsty but I hope not too much, the subject might also not please everybody but I wanted to do something pretty believable (I hope it is!)… Please tell me what you think in the reviews and see you next time for the last chapter! =)**

**Chapter 7**

**Revelations**

« What happened ? » asked Emily and Punk at the same time.

"Please, don't be mad at me because I hid it from you but… I thought it wasn't a bad thing that you had forgotten about it… I didn't think it might be the reason why…"

"Are you going to tell us or no?!" Punk got mad.

Kaitlyn looked at him with pity in her eyes. She hadn't said anything to him either, though she had supposed Emily hadn't talked to him before the memory loss. It wasn't her place to do so. Yes, but she was the only one to remember.

"You were pregnant!" she said quickly.

Emily put her hand on her belly, Punk was staring at her.

"What do you mean 'were'? For how long? Did I… I…?"

"You didn't know!" Kaitlyn answered "You were for only 2 or 3 weeks and then… You didn't feel well… I don't really know what happened because I wasn't there but you threw up blood and…"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Punk asked, shocked and hurt.

"She didn't want to bother you, you had a big match that you were contracted to do and when it comes to Emily… You get very protective… too much! Anyway, you called me and I told you to go to the hospital right away, you were taken care of quickly but…"

"You called Kaitlyn and not me?!" Punk interrupted again.

"Don't look at me like that! I don't even remember it, I don't see how I could give you any explanations!" Emily said dryly, she didn't want him to interrupt Kaitlyn again.

"After examination, the doctors had concluded that your pregnancy had had problems and you had lost the embryo. Your body had a bad reaction, which explained the blood, the nausea and the other troubles! They wanted to keep you in but you knew that Phil was coming home that night and you wanted to talk about it directly with him. You asked me not to say anything but I couldn't stop myself and I said you had a rough day, hoping he would get home to you faster… I suppose you were already asleep when he came home and you didn't have time to discuss…"

There was a long silence in the room. They left Doctor Robinson's office. Once in the car, Kaitlyn took the wheel, seeing the other two wouldn't be able to do it.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Punk asked, lost.

"I…" Emily started.

"I was talking to Celeste!" he interrupted gently.

Kaitlyn opened her eyes wide. It was the first time he called her by her first name. Things were personal, they weren't hiding behind ring names and false bickering…

She sighed, putting her hand through her hair:

"I don't really know… I had never heard Emily like that… the miscarriage… She didn't seem sad or angry or upset… I was scared for her but she assured me that you would be home to take care of her… When you called, I thought it was about that and I came as soon as I could… When I saw she had forgotten all about it, I thought it was for the best…"

"I understand why you didn't say anything to Emily but me…?" the wrestler whined.

"I didn't want to betray Emily… And your relationship had already turned so weird, I didn't want to add that. She was already struggling to accept you were more than friends so how would you both have reacted if I had told you she had been pregnant! And… You didn't really know how to act with her between friend and lover so… And… I don't really remember anymore but I thought it was best and less hurtful for everyone…" she sighed.

Punk was silent again, he had so many questions but none came out. Emily looked pensively through the window. Kaitlyn just drove in silence.

When they reached the hotel, they met some Superstars and Divas going out for lunch, they invited them. They declined but Kaitlyn went, she needed to leave that tensed atmosphere and anyway, she thought, Punk and Emily needed to talk by themselves. But once they were alone, he said he wanted to be alone and went to the bus. Emily went to her room.

There, she undressed, not caring where her clothes landed on the floor. She went to the big mirror next to the closet and looked at her reflection. She concentrated on her belly… There was nothing, nothing different, except it might be firmer than before because she went to train with Kaitlyn and the guys from the Shield sometimes…

Then, she looked at her face. Her eyes were red. Without realizing it, she broke into tears. Looking at her reflection, she started to laugh between sobs. To anyone, she would have looked like she had gone completely crazy. She knew it was just her body expressing tiredness and the mental fatigue that she had experienced since that miscarriage she had forgotten about. She lied down on the floor, naked, like a starfish and crying all she had into her.

She wasn't crying because of sadness. Deep down, she had never wanted children and it was but two weeks, it wasn't a child yet, right? Though, she couldn't help but feel a bit depressed… She was mad at her past self for not having told Punk…

She stayed on the floor for a long long time with the good sensation of having cried all her tears. She even fell asleep for a moment. When she woke up, she went to shower. After 20 minutes, she came out and put on baggy jeans and a hoodie, no caring to put on underwear. Her damp hair were framing her makeup-free face. She wanted to see Punk and didn't care much about looking good.

When she arrived at the bus, she knocked on the door but it remained closed. She knew that Punk was there, so she insisted. He finally came to the door and let her into his mobile home:

"I don't want to talk!" he said.

"No problem!" she said as she settled on his bed.

He looked at her for a minute but he finally joined her. After a few minutes looking at the ceiling, she said:

"Don't be mad at me for saying this and don't think that I am a monster but… I feel like this doesn't affect me as much as it should. Maybe it is because I don't remember or because I don't want to have children… All I know is that I don't want to be sad about that and I don't want to lose what we have because of this… And I don't want you to be sad!"

Punk turned towards her with a little smile, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

"You know you are something else! You never say what I'm expecting!"

She blinked and offered him a little smile. He went back on his back and sighed:

"I don't know what to do, what to say… Should I be mad because you didn't tell me anything? Sad because it was something huge? Relieved because I am not ready to be a father? … To be honest, you make things easier…"

She took his hand and squeezed it tight.

"I am sorry!" she whispered.

"Why?" he asked, turning towards her again.

"For not telling you when it concerned you as much as it did me, for having forgotten everything about us, for the distance I put between us when you were just trying to help me…"

She wanted to continue the list because she had a lot of things she wanted to apologize for but he put his hand on her mouth:

"It's not your fault and I'm not mad at you at all… It's true that I'm sad when you get away from me but I know that if you didn't, I would push you into continuing our lives like nothing happened… It's just… It's so hard not to touch you, to breathe in your smell, to kiss you when I love you so much!" he mumbled in a confession.

As soon as his mouth closed, she kissed him. He was shocked at first but he was soon into it… She took control, seeing he feared to push her.

That wasn't her case anymore. Her feelings towards Punk had changed the past few weeks… He wasn't the best friend who was crashing on her couch every three months, leaving way too many Pepsi bottles in her fridge, anymore…

Every time she saw him, she felt happy and weird. Until now, she thought it was because she didn't remember but she knew she was starting to feel something different…

She couldn't say if it was love, but it was certainly more than friendship…

And recently, she had started to notice him physically: she had always known he had brownish-green eyes but she had never seen before how shiny with intelligence they were, she loved his short hair and his beard, she missed the lip ring that she thought was so cool though… His height, his frame, his tattoos… If it had scared her at first, now she assumed she was attracted to him.

She could still feel his hesitation and it made her smile:

"What does this mean?" he asked.

"It means that I now understand how I could have fallen in love with you!"

He opened his eyes wide.

"I don't really know where I am in my life… I don't think I can feel the same level of intensity in my feelings yet but… What I'm doing right now, I do it because I want to, not because I feel guilty or sad!"

"Are you sure?"

She nodded and kissed him again, with the tongue with time around.

"You don't have your tongue pierced anymore?"

"Nope… Someone wasn't a big fan!" he said, grinning and raising an eyebrow.

"I can't love everything about you, can I?" she joked.

He smiled and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist, he made them roll so he was on top:

"We can continue my little game of comparing your first times…" he grinned.

"This time, that's cheating!"

"I never cheat! I just use my cards the right way!" he winked at her.

"Now that you said this, I'm starting to think this all over again… I mean, you and I are such good friends, it would be a shame to…"

"No no no, too late! You can't back down!"

She giggled, the stupid giggle of a young woman in love. He kissed her again an she lost herself in his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here we are! This is the end! Thank you so much for reading this story. A big hug to everyone that commented and followed this story… And now, til next time, bye bye! =)**

**Chapter 8**

**Remembering**

« Hello ! »

Punk slid into the bed next to Emily. He smelled like he had just come out of the shower, he smelled like soap.

"Let me sleep!" she said, grumpy.

"You know, I think you must have been a woodchuck in another life, sleeping all the time!" he smiled, kissing her cheek.

The contact of his beard against her skin tickled her and she smiled without opening her eyes. She knew nothing better than to wake up in his arms…

"Not everybody is an insomniac! The world would go mad!" she said as she opened her eyes on her smiling boyfriend of two months.

"I'm an insomniac and I think I don't do too bad! I mean, I have a good job, a super class mobile home and the coolest girl on earth in my bed!"

"Technically, it's my bed!" she said pushing the covers over her legs.

She got out of bed and stretched like a cat, exaggerating every movement because she knew Punk liked the view. He was watching her, a smile on his lips.

"I can't believe it's the last PPV I'll be able to come!" she whined as she started brushing her teeth.

"It's your fault! Why did you want to get a job instead of travelling with us!" he said, grouchy.

"Inactivity makes me mean!" she said, her mouth full of toothpaste foam.

"Say that to Kaitlyn! She is even more upset than I am. I don't think she will talk to you ever again!"

Emily shrugged. Deep down, she knew the Texan was happy for her, even if she would have liked better for her to get a job with the WWE to remain close to them. Emily would have liked it but the idea of being treated differently because she was CM Punk's girlfriend/fiancée would make her ill-at-ease.

From an exterior point of view, Emily was still Punk's fiancée but the idea had not fully made its way into her head yet. She was in love with him and she could see herself marry him… but like way down in the future.

They had decided to postpone the wedding to an undetermined date.

She wanted to put order in her life before settling in with him, that's why she had wanted to work again. She was really proud to be an independent woman and being financially independent was a part of it.

She was coming from a little town where young women's major ambition was to get married very young to become housewives. That wasn't her plan. Her mother had had to find a job after her father's passing and they had been through tough times for a few years. Once she had been of age, she had found a small job and she had been proud to help her mother out.

"I'm not doing it to bother her!" she said after she spat.

Punk was watching her even though he knew how much she found it "creepy". But he couldn't help himself. He had been so nervous to have scared her away that he enjoyed every moment now. She had decided to give him a chance two months prior but he still had trouble to believe it.

He had understood her memory wasn't coming back and that a part of their past was going to remain blank to her. At the beginning, he had wondered if it wouldn't affect their new relationship but Emily had been "like herself" again and they had agreed not to speak about the past unless it was something important.

And it didn't prevent him from loving her and he saw she loved him as well, so there was no reason to complicate things with mentions of a past only he could remember. As Colt said "nothing could stop their love anymore!".

"I know that… But we're still going to miss you on the road! Specially me, on the bus!" he got up behind her and cuddled her from behind.

"Because you don't think I'm going to terribly miss you, alone in this apartment, imagining you living a rock star's life touring in your bus?" she raised an eyebrow at their reflection in the mirror.

He giggled in her neck and kissed her pulse point. He let her finish preparing and went to read a Comic on the couch, the new one that AJ had lended him. He was only half reading because he would rather watch his girlfriend going back and forth between the bathroom and the bedroom in her lacy red underwear. Obviously she had not decided what to wear today.

He thought back to the day she told him she was in love with him… for the second time:

"What is it about the former me that you miss the most?" she had asked.

"I don't know… Probably the stupid little singsong you had invented, you used to sing it all the time!"

"Really? What was it like?"

"I'm telling you the lyrics but I'm not singing it!" he had said, warning.

"No I want the all thing! I want to be able to sing it!" she had whined.

"CM Punk is my guy, I love him and he's mine, the tattoos and the pipebombs, made every girl's heart melt, but I'm the one to take off his belt!" he sung with a raspy voice.

Emily had been stuck in awe but then she had started laughing really loud. At first, he had been upset because he had thought she was making fun of his singing voice but he had soon realized it was the lyrics that had made her laugh. It was so stupid and corny but she had started singing it anyway. He hadn't shared her enthusiasm and she had noticed it:

"What's going on?"

"Nothing, it's just at the time, they had another meaning… You really meant them!"

"But I really mean them!" had she defended herself.

"What?!"

"Punk, I love you!" she had said, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

He remembered he had exploded with joy and had sung with her for the rest of the trip to San Francisco. That was one of the best nights of his life.

He smiled as he heard her humming "their" song. She was finally ready, they could go to the arena. They didn't have to get there so early but Punk was a perfectionist and he liked to be there for the mike tests and the pre-runs of the video packages… Everything that may concern his promo and his match.

They got in the car and drove through Chicago. Punk had a TLC match in the main event against Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship that the American dragon had held for four months…

At the arena, they went their separate ways. Punk went to technicians to prepare his entrance with the pyrotechnics. Emily went to the Divas locker room, she knocked on the door. Alicia came to open it:

"Look who has finally escaped from Phil?" she joked opening the door wide.

Kaitlyn got up on her feet and came to hug her:

"I thought you were mad at me?" Emily asked, surprised by such a welcome.

"What's the point? You're going to leave me anyway and I don't want to waste the last moment that we have together…"

"Oh please, I'm not dying!" Emily punched her slightly on the arm.

Kaitlyn let her go and she finally entered the locker room. She spent the rest of the afternoon there talking with the girls about nothing and everything.

When the show started, she went to the TV room where she found Paul Heyman:

"Emily, I'm so happy to see you!"

"Thanks, you too!"

"So, I hope Punk is not too stressed about the match?"

"You know him, he hasn't slept much last night… And I know he didn't train as much as he wanted with Bryan because he was too busy with Brianna…" she sighed.

Paul reassured her, saying that Punk had chronical insomnia and that never stopped him from being the best in the world.

They settled in front of the screen and a few minutes later Punk came to join them in his ring gear and a new hoodie with his name on it.

"Hey Chip 'n' Dale!"

"What are you doing here?" Emily greeted him with a kiss.

"I thought it would be nice to watch the show with you while I wait for my turn!"

"Don't you like to be by yourself to focus before the shows?" asked Heyman.

"True but it's the last time Emily comes to a PPV and I wanted to spend some time with her…"

Emily smiled, deciding to ignore the implicit remark saying she was abandoning him. She knew she was betting a lot by leaving him so soon after getting together again but she believed in them, it would only make them stronger. Anyway, what she had done last time could only be temporary; she couldn't follow him on the roads and let him pay for everything.

"Am I really such a non-threat to you that you'd rather spend time watching TV instead of preparing for our match?" asked a voice behind them.

They turned around and saw Bryan, accompanied by his girlfriend, Brianna. Emily smiled. She liked Brie a lot, way more than her sister Nikki. If those two were twins, you soon learn how to not confuse them. Brie was less of an attention seeker than Nikki, who more often than not spoke without thinking, giving her the reputation of being dumb. Brie was a hard-working woman, who paid more attention on her moves in the ring and security than to her make-up and manicure. Not that Emily didn't like to spend time with Nikki, the beautiful Latina could party like no one. It was just that Brie could be more into the serious conversations.

"Let's just say that I could be stretching alone in a corner or hang out with my beautiful fiancée so… What about you, then?"

"I made the same conclusion!" the bearded man smiled.

Emily smiled, both for the compliment and because she knew how much Punk liked to spend time with Bryan. It reminded him of his time in the indies. He was happy to go against him. She knew he had been a bit disappointed to not spend more time with him, because even though they were in the same company and roster now, they both had their own lives. One of them was mediatized because of his relationship with a Bella Twin who was filmed 24/7 for a reality TV show. The other had become the new idol of the company since he had decided to spoke his mind in an epic promo.

"Don't be too relaxed, I don't plan on loosing this!" he said, showing the belt on his shoulder.

"We're going to give them the best match of the year!" Punk answered, shaking the champion's hand.

They smiled and Bryan made his way out of the room:

"Emmy, since it's your last PPV, we wanted to organize a little something with the girls… We have cake and we will watch the main event in the Divas locker room! We knew you would want to spend the rest of the evening with Phil… See you then!"

Brie offered her her brightest smile and a wave of the hand, she then went after her boyfriend.

"Aren't they soooo cuuute!" Punk gently mocked.

"Do you get a cake at the end of the night? So you don't get to make comments!" she answered as she kissed him.

"Hey, easy on the kisses!" intervened Paul "I don't want my little Punk to be too distracted!"

"Don't be nervous like that, Paul! I know you're not a big fan of ladder matches but trust me, I'm used to it now!"

"We never get used to it!" Heyman was grumpy, he knew it wouldn't change Punk's mind.

They watched the show in silence, except for Punk's commentary on some Superstars' moves.

"Do you think they make commentary on your matches too?" Emily asked, amused.

"No… I don't even think they watch them and that's why I'm the best in the world and not them! You have to keep informed on what's new when you go against someone as talented as Daniel Bryan!"

"But aren't all the videos you make me watch in that purpose?"

"Yes, too!" he smiled "And don't try to make me believe you don't like it… The other day, you made me watch the same match twice!"

"Well it's not my fault, I love the high flyers and there was Alex Shelley… And he is hot!" she shrugged.

Punk smiled and pushed her gently. She smiled back. She liked to tease him when they were only friends but now that they were so much more, there wasn't anything she liked more.

An assistant came to interrupt them:

"It's going to be your turn next!"

Punk turned to Heyman:

"You should go! I'll join you at gorilla in a second!"

If Heyman hadn't accompanied Punk to the ring for a while, he still went with him to gorilla to give him last minute advice. It was their ritual.

"And you should go to the Divas locker and enjoy that infamous cake to start celebrating my victory!"

"Do you want me to keep you a piece?"

"Can you do it without eating it first?" he teased.

"I was going to propose you eat that cake directly on me body to celebrate but I suppose you don't want any of it, right?"

She didn't give him time to answer. They kissed him quickly on the lips and left him, going to the Divas locker room.

"Surprise!"

"Surprise?"

"Yes, we thought we could watch the main event here for your last PPV with us! We even bought a cake!" Layla smiled.

"I already know, Brie told me earlier!" Emily said, confused.

All heads turned to the tattooed twin:

"I didn't know it was a surprise! You told me she had to be here… Well, she's here!" she half-apologized.

"Good job, lil' sis'!" Nikki mocked "That's the last time we give you a mission!"

"I was told there was a cake! What kind?"

"What a silly question! Chocolate of course!" answered Kaitlyn, who had put on a party hat along with a monocle and a fake mustache.

Emily spent a moment to admire her. If she still had doubt that Kaitlyn was her best friend, she would have been convinced right then. Only the two-toned Diva was crazy enough to pull off that look. Specially because Alicia and Rosa were eyeing her like as had escaped an asylum.

"Did you get a monocle for me?" she laughed.

"Of course!" Kaitlyn took a plastic thing similar to hers out of her pocket.

"In that case, that improvised goodbye party can start!" Emily screamed.

AJ blew a whistle and the girls took out plastic plates and cutlery. Once everyone was served, they all said a nice word to Emily before settling on the sofas facing the TV.

Emily and Brie were sitting next to each other, holding their breath. Both knew their boyfriends were going to get hurt, no matter how little…

"Everything is going to be fine!" Natalya promised in her ear.

Punk's music could be heard in the entire arena, a chill went down her spine when she saw the man she loved coming out wearing his hoodie.

He went to the ring and took off the hoodie, looking into the camera with an intense look. Emily knew it was for her.

The song of the Valkyries started and Daniel Bryan came out, holding proudly the WWE title. From the corner of her eye, Emily could see the twins share a look.

After a long introduction from Justin Roberts, the match finally started. If both men respected each other a lot outside the ring, it wasn't the case on screen. Bryan had just turned heel a month after winning the championship, so tonight the public was cheering for the Second City Savior.

They started, punching and kicking hard. They threw each other in the ring corners, jumped above the top rope, into the stairs. Emily's heart missed a beat every time she feared Punk might get injured.

He pushed Daniel on the commentary table and looked at the title that had just been hanged above the ring.

He took out a ladder under the ring and opened it inside. He was climbing up the first steps when Daniel arrived and brought him to the floor, hard.

The matched kept going for a while, it was captivating but Emily could perceive a certain uneasiness on her fiancé's face, she hoped it was only for the gimmick…

Daniel went to get a giant ladder after he suicide dived on Punk. The end of the match was near. CM Punk got up and knocked the champion out with a high kick, placing him in the ring. He opened the big ladder outside to jump inside the ring on Bryan Macho Man style.

He climbed it up with difficulty, which gave Daniel enough time to get up. Once the challenger was high enough, Daniel started to get close. He wasn't supposed to push it all the way but his foot got caught up in a camera wire.

Punk tried to stabilize the ladder by putting all his weight on his heels but instead of falling in the ring, he fell towards the announcing table.

His head collided with it. The referee immediately made the X sign with his arms.

It was complete silence in the arena and all the Divas turned to Emily who was staring at the screen, shocked.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the situation is very serious…" she could hear Michael Cole declare.

She could feel arms hug her and for a second, she thought it was Punk, but it was Kaitlyn… Seeing the worried look on her best friend's face, she realized something:

"I know you!"

"What?" the Blonde wasn't expecting this.

"I know all of you!"

"Of course you know us Emmy! What are you talking about?"

Emily had no time for this, she needed to get to Punk… She didn't care about cameras, his gimmick or the rest of the world for that matter, she needed him and she was certain that right now, he needed her. And she really needed to tell him something:

"I remember everything!" she murmured before leaving the room, running.

As she ran in the hallways like crazy, she noticed she didn't have flashbacks or she wasn't overwhelmed by memories, nothing was falling back into place. It just felt like she had always known about it, like something you know that you know but can't remember right now… The shock of maybe losing the man of her life was the shock to make everything right. But it wasn't right, Phil was hurt and she had no idea how bad.

She was stopped in her tracks by a group of Superstars with worried looks: Kofi, Wade Barrett, Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton…

"No Emily! Let them do their job!" Kofi screamed as he caught her by the waist.

Emily fought to get free, she scratched his skin with her nails, she slapped him, she bit him… She liked Kofi a lot but in this instant, he was in her way and nothing/no one could stop her from being by Punk's side…

"I need to see him! Leave me alone! I must see him, just let me go!"

She didn't know if she was screaming or crying. Her mind was not there… In the back, she saw the ambulance come into the arena in reverse. So she fought harder to get free from the Ghanaian. Once she managed to do it, she started to run in case another one of the group would try to stop her again. She arrived and stuck herself to the ambulance doors. Nobody would push her away until she had seen him.

Deep down, she knew there was no chance he wasn't alive anymore… She just feared how badly injured he would be…

The stretcher came in. They had but a neck-bracer on him, Doctor Robinson was there. He left Punk's side as soon as he saw Emily:

"He needs to go to the hospital, right now" he explained "We think he might have broken cervicals and he still isn't conscious…"

Emily's gaze kept going from the doctor to the body on the stretcher.

"I'm coming with!" she said.

The doctor wasn't pleased but he could see the determination on the young woman's face and knew better not to argue. He just nodded. She went in the ambulance after Punk and a member of the medical staff.

"Can I touch him?" she asked as the doors were closing.

"Nothing in the neck area!" warned the man in black.

"Just his hand!"

The man nodded and Emily took Punk's hand into hers.

"Hey, don't do that to me, not now that I remember everything. I want you to know it!" she cried.

Of course the hospital was on the other side of town… Emily stopped crying and started praying. She was not religious at all, but she didn't know what else to do.

The nurse was checking every ten minutes the pulse and the breathing of the patient. He put a light in front of his eyes, those seemed absent as if he was dreaming or deep in thought…

"Nothing?"

"Nothing"

Emily squeezed his hand tighter, hoping for some kind of miracle to happen, that he would open his eyes and be perfectly fine. She sang their song… He remained unconscious…

Once at the hospital, the staff asked Emily to get out of the way. She didn't want to leave him but she knew she couldn't do anything to help him.

Just before they entered the building, she heard a small voice:

"Hey, easy tiger!"

She tried to pass through the nurse and doctors encircling him, asking him a lot of questions at the same time and pointing lights at his eyes.

"You fell during your match and we had to take you to the hospital. As you remained unconscious until now, we want to examine you and see if everything is okay…"

"Emily? Where's Emily?" he asked, still confused.

"I'm here!" she screamed from behind the crowd of people surrounding him.

They all let her through. She immediately took his hand and brought it her lips.

"I'm sorry Miss Crawley but you can't come with us!" Dr Robinson said.

Emily nodded. She didn't want to be in the way, the sooner they examine him, the sooner he could come home.

"I just want to tell…"

"It will have to wait!"

They pushed the stretcher and the intertwined hands of Punk and Emily were separated. She shrugged, she could always tell him later, the priority was his health.

Behind her, she felt movement. She turned around and saw Kaitlyn, Bryan, Brie and some other Superstars worried about Punk. There was also some of the WWE staff, that went directly in to ask the medical staff about the condition of their top star.

"Hey" Kaitlyn said, breathless.

"Hey" Emily answered more calmly than she thought she would be.

"We should probably go in?" Kofi asked.

Emily's cellphone started to ring. It was Chez, Punk's sister:

"Emmy, tell me that what I just saw on TV was just for show? Mom and the girls are panicking!"

Emily told her everything that happened since the WWE had gone off the air. She reassured her as much as she could, asking her to tell her family, Colt, Lars and everyone that might get concerned for Punk's status because it would be hard for her to pick up in the hospital. She promised to call her as soon as she would get more news. She hung up and went to join the others in the waiting room. They all tried to comfort her but she didn't feel like talking:

"What did you mean by 'I remember everything'?" Kaitlyn finally asked, she couldn't wait anymore.

"I… The shock… I remember the missing year!"

"Everything? You mean, you remember me, and Punk and all of us?"

Emily nodded, Kaitlyn jumped in her arms. The young woman tried to hug her back but she didn't feel as excited about the news as her best friend. Though she was happy to "find back" Kaitlyn, the one she wanted to celebrate with was Punk.

A doctor came in to speak with Emily privately: Punk had nothing too serious physically, just a concussion that was a bit concerning, but if everything was fine, he wouldn't stay too long in the hospital. And he was asking for her. She thanked him and asked him to share the news with their group of friends while she went to the man of her life's room.

She went in without knocking and saw the office employees of WWE discussing with the injured man:

"Sorry" she said as she was closing the door to wait in the hallway.

"Wait! You can speak in front of my fiancée!"

Both men exchanged a look but they knew how stubborn Punk could be and that he would impose Emily's presence no matter what they said.

"First of all, the McMahon family wishes you the best in your recovery!"

"You can tell them I thank them!" Punk answered with irony as he made a sign to Emily to come closer.

"Then, we spoke to your doctors and they think you'll need at least 2 weeks off to rest… We might call you before that to make a promo but be assured, you won't wrestle for 2 weeks!"

Punk frowned. He didn't like forced leave, if he was taking a vacation, he liked to be the one to ask for it.

"And that's all for now!"

The two men took their leave after exchanging a few politenesses. The two love birds were finally alone:

"You'll have to bear with me for 2 weeks then…" he sighed as he pulled Emily closer to kiss her.

"That shouldn't be a problem!" she smiled, sitting next to him on the bed.

"I'm not sure I will be in a good mood though!" he warned.

"Anyway, you'll be spending your time reassuring everybody you're okay, I won't see you that much!"

"Yeah, especially if you work all day…" he sighed louder than before.

"Well… I'm going to thank them for the offer but I won't do it… They won't be too happy about it but I think you'll need me more than they do…"

"Thank god!" he smiled widely.

They remained cuddled up in each other for a few minutes:

"That reminds me the night we spent after Night of Champions last year, you had hurt your knee and you could barely walk… I thought you'd tear off the head of your doctor… And then, we went in the bus, under the opening roof…" she started.

"With the covers on the floor and Kofi driving… Thinking back, this is probably one of the best nights of my life… Even though you suck at astronomy!" he laughed.

"Not everybody is obsessed by stars and constellations, Mr Spaceboy!" she answered, nudging him lightly.

He only laughed harder and pulled her closer to him. She looked at him in the corner of her eye. She may have been too subtle… He didn't get that she remembered a night she should have forgotten!

"I should call your sister to reassure her!"

"Which one?"

"Chez… But she keeps the whole "tribe" in the loop!" she insisted on the word because that's how he always called them.

"Let Kofi do it! I want to keep you with me as much as I can! They're going to force you to leave soon…"

"Phil…"

"Hmm?"

"It's been twice I tried to make you understand something subtly but you don't seem to get it…"

"That's the concussion for you!" he shrugged "Nothing serious?"

"On the contrary, it's good news I think!"

He sat back up and looked at her attentively:

"You know I probably won't remember it in a few hours, right?" he warned.

"I'll tell you again, then!"

"Okay… Wait… Night of champions… You remember? You remember! Right?"

She didn't have time to answer, he pulled her into the tightest hug ever. She could no longer breathe but he was so happy, she didn't want to ruin the moment. She could feel his tears roll in her neck.

"I thought it would never happen!" he sniffled.

"Yeah well… Mr Brooks, you're going to get stuck with a girl who remembers every day of her life! Are you sure you still want to marry her?" she joked.

"Oh yes! And that concussion might be a good news after all! We're gonna spend our time talking about all that you remember and everything we need for our future!"

He couldn't stop crying and she felt some tears of joy roll down her face too.

She thought that it felt like the end of a fairytale. Everything was for the best in the end.

**THE END.**


End file.
